Unbroken
by spirifiume
Summary: Set in Season 2 between "The Future Revealed" and "No Man Left Behind". Ashlocke is dead. Eckhart is in stasis. Pre-Lexa. This story details the events that caused Emma to begin slipping towards the "dark side". (Complete)
1. Unbroken Chapter 1

Chapter 1

One living cell. Just one cell was all that was needed. One cell survived to become two, then four. Slowly, very slowly, at an agonizing pace, something was growing, regenerating. Four had become eight and eight, sixteen. In a landfill, east of the city, the sixteen cells absorbed organic material from all around them, feeding and processing. No intelligence guided this recreation, only the enhanced DNA of that one cell that had survived disintegration and been disposed of with the garbage. Doubling again, thirty-two cells absorbed rainwater, refuse, pollen, microorganisms and whatever else they could use to grow. The desolate blight of the landfill was a warm womb, regenerating the smallest possible remainder of a life. Hundreds of cells grew to thousands, then millions, billions and trillions, finally forming a chrysalis. More and more organic material was drawn to it and swallowed. Finally, after nearly a year had passed, a figure rose up from the cocoon in the shape of a man and walked forth from the refuse dump.

Far away, Emma DeLauro sat in the lotus position on a large square mat in her room within the secure walls of Sanctuary. She began with samatha meditation, concentrating on her breathing. Her eyes closed, and body at rest, she felt the inhalation of breath through her nose, the feel of the air as it coursed through her windpipe, the muscles of her diaphragm inflating her lungs, raising her chest and stomach slightly. She was dressed simply; in a pair of loose-fitting shorts and an orange t-shirt only a few shades lighter than her hair since she had dyed it from her natural brown. Emma exhaled and the air passed back the way it had come. She focused her thoughts on breathing.

In neighboring rooms, she could sense the amorous feelings between Shalimar and Brennan. These emotions were mixed with frustration, as neither would make a move on the other. Both were afraid of rejection and both were afraid to let themselves fall in love and risk being hurt. Emma renewed her focus on her breathing. As air entered her lungs, life-giving oxygen infused her blood and carbon dioxide was cleansed from her body.

Jesse was feeling lonely and depressed. He was longing for comfort and a sense of belonging. It wasn't that he didn't feel himself fully a part of Mutant X, but rather his natural tendency to chafe at being a part of anything. The grass was always greener on the other side and he never felt himself content, alone or in a group, leading or following. There was no peace for his restless mind and she wondered what he was seeking in his life. Her ribs rose again as she shifted her thoughts back to her own body. She contracted her stomach and her ribs sank down again as another breath left her body. Nothing existed except the inflow and outflow of air, the inhalation and subsequent exhalation.

In the lab, Adam was struggling with a problem. Emma could sense his concern. Perhaps there was a twinge of fear in him. She sensed that he was certain of something, but trying to find a way he could be wrong, because he was afraid that he was right. An image formed in her mind. There was an angry young woman. She was being restrained and a subdermal governor was being implanted in the back of her neck. Adam was the one implanting it. She tried once again to go back to her breathing, but it was no use. She stood up from her padded mat, slipped on a pair of worn old slippers she wore around Sanctuary and left her room to find Adam.

When Emma walked into the laboratory, Adam was entering information in the computer, which fed a holographic bio-emulator. It was an amazing piece of equipment that he had commissioned to be built through his contacts with the Department of Defense. The machine and the advanced brain behind it could sort through the chaos created by genetic manipulation and closely emulate how DNA controlled the production of amino acids, which in turn formed into proteins and were the key to shaping an organism. She could tell instantly that he was looking at mutant DNA by the unique bonding of Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine found only in her kind.

"Adam," Emma said, coming up behind the older man, who was so intent on his work that he hadn't noticed her enter or even hear his own name spoken. She walked up to stand just behind and to the side of him and watched as the DNA in the tank conducted an orchestra or cellular production. It was immediately apparent to her that it was an Elemental, whose genetic makeup Adam was studying. The girl in her vision was obviously a powerful mutant. She could tell by the complexity of the amino acids. Gently, she touched Adam's left shoulder with her right hand and he turned to her with a slightly startled expression on his face.

"Emma, I didn't hear you come in," he said.

"Sorry to sneak up on you," she said, a smile lighting up her face in an attempt to put his tension at ease. He smiled back at her in turn.

"I want you to take a look at this, Emma. What do you make of these patterns?" he asked her. Adam stepped aside and she began manipulating the controls, zooming in on some of the gene sequences, running analysis subroutines and familiarizing herself in general with this particular mutant strain.

"The subject is obviously an Elemental. Possibly a Thermal or, actually, a Chemical…," she said, trailing off as she noticed a minor, but important cluster of chemicals. "A Geological?"

"Very good, Emma," Adam said.

She examined several key nucleotides and quickly came to a conclusion, "This DNA is very unstable and there's something strange about the sugar-phosphate backbone of the helixes."

Adam stepped up beside her as the display in the holographic tank swooped down to show the individual base pairs of a DNA strand. He hadn't looked this close at the fundamental components of the sample, but Emma was right, the bonds of the base pairs and the structure of the backbone were unlike anything he could recall seeing and shattered the laws of genetics as he knew them.

"This is the DNA of a child treated at Genomex six months after Gabriel Ashlocke," Adam told her. "I have run a simulation based on data points taken throughout her treatment until just before she ran away in her early twenties. What you see now is an extrapolation of what her DNA would look like today."

"Hey, what's up?" Jesse said as he entered the room. Emma and Adam turned toward him.

"It looks like we may have a new assignment," Adam said.

"Great, just as things were getting quiet around here. Should I get Shalimar and Brennan?" he asked.

"Yes, I'll brief you all in the lounge area." The blond man left the lab to find the other two team members. Emma sensed a feeling of relief from him that he was finally doing something. Though he didn't know what he wanted from his life, he always preferred action to inaction, a feeling generally shared by all of the members of Mutant X.

"It'll be easier to tell all four of you the story at once." Emma felt that the small tinge of fear he was emanating earlier had grown significantly. He put his arm around her shoulder briefly and squeezed her slightly to him in a gesture of reassurance, but she knew it was more for him than for her. They left the lab to meet the others.


	2. Unbroken Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Adam was faced away from the room, staring out of the window, which wasn't really a window. The high definition image was transmitted from a camera on the other side of the thick Sanctuary walls and displayed what would be seen in real time if there were a true window facing that direction. Today, there were no boats or planes to be seen. Occasionally a bird swooped down from the cliffs of Stormking Mountain. The blue sky was largely dominated by billowing cirrus clouds and the water was calm, only showing a hint of rippling on its surface. Emma sat on a couch by the table in the lounge where the team often congregated for mission briefings. She was continuing to feel Adam's nervous fear that she could not entirely block from her mind. Although she had learned a great deal about genetics from Adam during her time with Mutant X, Emma's understanding of what she saw in the holographic bio-emulator was not complete, but she knew Adam well enough to be worried if he was worried.

The other three team members entered the room. Shalimar sat on a couch across the table from Emma and Jesse sat on Emma's left. Brennan remained standing, his right arm resting on the back of the leather chair next to him, partially supporting his weight. Adam turned from the "view" and addressed the group.

"You all remember Gabriel Ashlocke," he said. All of their ears perked up at the mention of that name. "As you know, Gabriel was the first mutant. He was an unstable combination of Feral, Molecular, Psionic and Elemental. When we attempted to eliminate these unexpected side effects from the genetic work we were doing, we were not entirely successful. Although more stable, the later subjects still displayed powers and a tendency to mutate as you all well know. Our first Elemental, patient three, was a young woman named Julia Lechner." The tranquil oceanscape behind him was replaced by a picture of the woman as well as the text of her file. She was an attractive, middle-aged blonde with a slim build. "Julia was a Geologic with the ability to disintegrate matter. Her touch was equivalent to millions of years of time, reducing solid stone to a pile of dust. The effect was similar when she touched a human. I was given a sample to study of the fine carbon and trace minerals that had once been an orderly at the research laboratory. Apparently he had tried to give Julia a shot and she had touched him with the desire to stop him. There wasn't the faintest trace of DNA or any indication that the dust had once been a human being."

Adam looked into each of their faces, trying to gauge their reactions. Emma sensed that he was walking a thin line, expressing the seriousness of the situation without scaring them. "By then, the subdermal governor had been developed and was used immediately. Over time, she was trained to control her powers and was not put on ice in a pod, like Gabriel was. Unfortunately, she was far too dangerous to be allowed to live with civilians, so she was raised at Genomex until, at age twenty-three, she escaped into the world and has not been heard from since."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "A bank was robbed downtown yesterday afternoon. Twenty million dollars was stolen shortly after the time-operated vault was shut. Bank employees reported that the safe door was completely intact and remained locked. When the time came for the vault door to open again, they found a large hole at the rear of the vault leading out into the street. The entire operation must have been carried out between the time when the vault was closed at noon and when it opened again at three. Police could only assume some sort of silent explosive or an incredibly powerful acid was used to open a hole in the solid steel vault. Of course both explanations are ridiculous. Nothing conventional could reduce steel to dust like that in such a short period of time, at least nothing within the experience of the police."

"And you think it was Julia Lechner?" Emma said, seeing clearly the conclusion to which he was leading them.

"The story came up in our computer sweep of police reports for unexplainable events that might be mutant-related. Only one mutant fits the description. From my own study of the steel in the vault, I've come to the tentative conclusion that Julia has developed the power to strip electrons from substances like an incredible direct current of electricity. I'm fairly certain that this is a mutation that developed after she left Genomex."

"Why did she rob a bank?" Brennan asked. "Why now and why in broad daylight?"

"That's what worries me the most. The crime was timed for the day of the month that the bank would have the most money in its vault. There was a small box truck waiting behind the bank, presumably for her to disintegrate the wall. Some passersby saw the truck, but there was nothing obvious to indicate a crime was transpiring. No one knew until the thieves were long gone."

"Did anyone see the hole from the outside when the truck left?" Jesse asked.

"Apparently they hung an advertisement for the bank over it." Adam appeared to smirk. The heist was clever in its simplicity. "This evidence suggests that she is involved with an organization of some kind that could research, plan and coordinate the theft. They must also be aware of her mutant powers. Even more troubling; the fact that the action came in broad daylight means that they are confident enough in the power of their organization not to fear capture. The question is: What do they need the money for? What are they planning?'"

The group took in the implications of a mutant who could utterly destroy anything with a simple touch and Emma could sense their feelings. Jesse seemed especially worried by Adams revelations. Perhaps he wondered if imperviousness in his massed state would win out against a disintegrative touch. It might come down to who was the stronger Molecular. Shalimar was feeling vulnerable as well. Her talent did not especially lend itself to a fight with such a mutant. If she were quick enough and her timing was right, she could launch an attack after the woman used her powers and before they were recharged. Brennan was the most confident of the others. He could strike from a distance with devastating electric force and propel himself away from danger with an electro-kinetic charge. As for herself, Emma wondered about the woman's motivations. What had driven her out of hiding? How had she spent the last dozen or so years of her life? What had changed?

"Another issue is that she may be continuing to mutate," Adam said, "just as all of you have. Examining her gene data makes it seem very likely. There's even the possibility that she may no longer need to touch in order to disintegrate." Now Emma could sense that even Brennan was afraid and she was as well. "Brennan and Shalimar, I want you two up in the Helix, monitoring police channels for any reports of objects or even people suddenly disappearing into dust."

"We're on it," Shalimar said, lithely rising from the couch and walking off side-by-side with Brennan.

He turned to Emma and Jesse. "Jesse, I want you to get on the computer and start looking for that money. Whatever they need it for, they can't do anything with cash. They will need to transfer the bills into an electronic form and clean the funds, probably overseas."

"And maybe I can get a better description of that truck," Jesse suggested.

"You might also want to see if you can pick up the trail Julia Lechner left after she left Genomex," Emma suggested.

"Good idea, Emma. It's pretty cold and G.S.A. was unable to follow it, but perhaps you can bring a new perspective to the challenge, Jesse" Adam said.

"Right, I'll do my best." Jesse left for the familiar computer console.

"Emma, I want you with me in the lab. Perhaps her return from hiding has to do with the instability of her DNA. It may have driven her to desperation. If we can stabilize her, it might be an important bargaining chip. We'll start with the research I did on stabilizing Ashlocke."

After hours of lab work, Adam said, "It can't be done."

"Adam?" Emma asked. His frustration was clear to her.

"We need a fresh sample of her DNA. There are too many possibilities. Our sample is too old and mostly conjecture."

"Brennan, Shalimar and Jesse are looking for her," Emma said. She knew he was right. They had come up with some interesting ideas, but until they found the woman, it was all theory.

"Why don't you go help Jesse. I'm going to tap some of my contacts and see if I can learn anything." Adam went into his private office through a doorway from the lab.

Emma found Jesse working intently at the main computer console.

"Find anything?" she asked him.

"I'm not sure that this was the first robbery of its kind. Look here." Jesse rolled his chair away from the screen and Emma sat on another one. The screen displayed several windows with newspaper clippings from across the country. They were all nighttime bank-robberies characterized by large explosions. "Look at the pictures. All of these banks were leveled. Completely leveled, even the vault. In each case, police forensics agents declared that the thieves used too much explosive and totally destroyed the vault as well as all of the money contained within." Emma nodded. "Despite the obvious similarities, none of these incidents were ever connected with one another and the investigations were all very short-lived."

"You think the organization behind those heists was behind this one? They destroyed the buildings to hide the evidence after they took the money?"

"Right. They all took place during a very brief window of time and get this." Jesse clicked and brought up another window.

"Fasergen?" Emma read questioningly.

"Fasergen," he said.

"How are they connected with this?" Emma asked. She had heard of Fasergen of course. No one with any knowledge of the field of genetics could fail to know about the brilliant newcomer to the field. To go from unknown to a leader in the field in just one year was a too remarkable to go unnoticed. Fasergen was a national success story.

"Fasergen was incorporated shortly after the first of these bank-robberies and has received regular cash infusions that correspond with each one. Julia Lechner may be the source of the company's start-up capital. Also, if they are employing new mutants, it might explain the fast pace of their discoveries and their uncanny success."

"I'll get Adam." Emma did not like the implications of Jesse's discovery and especially the fact that they were no longer bothering to cover their tracks. If he was right, Fasergen might be on its way to becoming the new Genomex. She retrieved Adam who looked through and confirmed Jesse's research.

"Fasergen," Adam said aloud. "You know, I never gave their name much thought." The way he said it and the emotions emanating from him gave Emma the feeling there was something ominous looming before them. She could tell Jesse was picking up on it too in his limited fashion. "Do either of you speak German?"

"No," they both answered. She could speak Finnish and Hungarian, but German was not closely related to either. Adam quickly walked off without saying anything else. Jesse went to an online translation website.

"I would assume 'gen' means gene," she said, "but I'm not sure what 'Faser' …." She trailed off as Jesse showed her the translation on the screen. It was ominous. "The Strand," she said.


	3. Unbroken Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Since returning from the presumed dead, Charles Marlowe had been busy. He quickly caught up with what had happened during his long regeneration. Genomex was now a shadow of its former self, run by the Strand, which he proceeded to join. Mason Eckhart was gone indefinitely. Thus far there had been no attempt to retrieve him from stasis. Gabriel Ashlocke was clearly a more maniacal force than Eckhart had been and far more powerful. He spoke often of New Mutants being freed, walking the streets without shame and using their powers without regret, but there did not seem to be any plan to bring this about. Ashlocke had the opposite problem of Marlowe. Patient Zero was dying. Once it was clear that nothing at Genomex would prolong his life, he more-or-less abandoned the facility and Marlowe seized the opportunity this afforded him.

Having come to terms with the fact that he was truly invulnerable—it was undeniable, especially after his recent resurrection—Marlowe was forced to accept the fact that he could never join his wife and child in death. Adam Kane's procedure had only caused a temporary counter-mutating effect on his DNA. If he was forced to live, he would rather live as ruler than slave. He had little faith in Ashlocke as a leader and set about preparing for Gabriel's ultimate self-destruction, which could not be far off.

Taking charge of Genomex and reorganizing all of its assets as a legitimate firm with an unblemished record was the first step. He called it Fasergen. Marlowe's new corporation rose to the forefront of genetic research within one year of opening its doors. The legitimate scientific and business communities did not realize that the firm's success was due largely to its over five hundred employee-shareholders—all new mutants, working in a small subsidiary called "Site G", the former headquarters of Genomex. The remnants of the Strand, those few weak mutants whom Gabriel Ashlocke had left behind when he abandoned Genomex in pursuit of his ill-conceived plans of mutant supremacy, were supplemented by former mutant employees and recruits, located by his assistant, Maria Raven, a psionic who could detect New Mutant kind on site.

"How are the boys getting along, Ms. Raven?" Charles Marlowe asked his assistant. It amused him to stand in Eckhart's old office, looking down on the stasis pod room, knowing that somewhere in deep storage, Mason himself was staring up at his glass case in disbelief. He hadn't died either.

"Very well, sir." Maria Raven was an attractive African American woman with a Rubenesque build. She was obedient and easily intimidated. Her latest finds had been her greatest—a pair of Telecyber-Psionic twins, Elian and John Ramos. "They were able to salvage most of Genomex's research, which had been encrypted or deleted. They have also recovered Eckhart's dossiers and intelligence files. The twins will be up here shortly to brief you on their findings."

"Excellent." Marlowe had worked hard and spent a large percentage of Fasergen's early profits to rebuild the old Genomex intelligence network in order to keep tabs on both the Strand and Mutant X along with the less interesting, but still important normal world. After he recruited Julia Lechner, with her special banking skills, funding for his less-than-legal activities became much easier. He had laughed each time Ashlocke's insane plots were thwarted by Adam Kane. Marlowe's stratagems were more subtle, steady and successful. He still had half a mind to see that Ashlocke's child was put to death along with the former Strand leader, if only he could find the infant. It had recently come to his attention that another splinter of Ashlocke loyalists was planning on creating a new Gabrielle by combining genes of Psionic, Feral, Molecular and Elemental to form a mutant with all four abilities. Thus far they had been unsuccessful, but it was something to keep an eye on.

"How many Strandlings have come over to us?" Charles Marlowe asked.

"All that we've been able to locate, though a core group remains unaccounted for along. Most likely they are all together and in hiding." Once Patient Zero was a thing of the past, his followers still remained…leaderless. The Strand clung to the hope that Ashlocke's child might someday come to lead them, but for now, they were ready to follow someone, anyone, and that made them the perfect tools for Marlowe's plans. Gabriel's legacy was the child and the belief in its potential power could be used to Marlowe's advantage. Those who hadn't followed the mother to watch over the development of the child were prepared to do anything to pave his way. His sales pitch of preparing the world for the mutant messiah had gone over well and been a powerful recruitment tool amongst the Links.

Only one had objected to his new leadership role, an Ursine Feral named Wayne Miller. When Charles had announced his plans to a group of Ashlocke's followers, a seven-foot tall man had attacked him, attempting to tear him limb from limb, but could not hurt him as no one could. A leader who could not come to harm, who could not be killed, was a godsend for an organization whose all-powerful head had just died. He had a vision and that vision became theirs. Even Miller believed and was now head of perimeter security at Site G.

The Ramos twins arrived in Marlowe's office. "Ms. Raven, you may go. Boys, have a seat." When Maria had originally brought them to Genomex, he had thought the twins looked more like boxers than computer hackers. They were muscular young Latin men with dark hair and thick brows. In the past few weeks they had become invaluable. "So, I understand you have made great progress in the little job I gave you."

"Yes, Mr. Marlowe," they answered in unison. Elian continued alone, "I have searched every computer at every former Genomex facility and recovered nearly twenty terabytes of information that employees had believed deleted from their computers after Mason Eckhart's fall."

"And I have defeated all of Genomex's encryptions for their emergency back-ups and the hierarchy's personal files. The employees were unable to delete this information when Ashlocke took over since they did not have the access." John's telecyber ability was focused in decryption, while Elian dealt with recovery. Together, they made an amazing tandem. "I have also begun the project of breaching the security of our competitors and decrypting their research information."

"We have compiled and organized everything we have learned with the assistance of Dr. Harrison and a New Mutant named Dylan Lawson." Marlowe raised his eyebrows in question, not having recognized this new name. "He is a molecular with the ability to reassemble complex objects that have been shattered to pieces. We recovered thousands of discs and hundreds of hard drives from all over the facility."

Marlowe briefly skimmed the digital version of their report, which highlighted several theories and discoveries Genomex researchers had never published or patented. If they panned out, these ideas had the potential to further consolidate Fasergen's position in the field of genetic and general scientific research. There was, however, one thing missing from the Ramos brothers' report.

"Mutant X?" Marlowe asked.

Both Elian and John suddenly looked nervous, but it was clear that John was more on edge as this was his area. "I have not been able to penetrate their computers remotely. They seem to have a network of physical firewalls set up like a honeycomb throughout the region. Any unauthorized access and their network cuts off all around the offender. My mind has very nearly been trapped in cyberspace each time I have attempted to locate Mutant X." There was a lingering silence and it was clear that this news was not welcome. "If I were physically in their headquarters, I am sure I could hack their computers, but they are well defended against a remote attack."

"Very well. Their time will come." Charles Marlowe rose from his desk and stood facing out the window again, looking over the stasis pod room. The Ramos twins awkwardly departed, leaving him alone.


	4. Unbroken Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Emma donned her 'government inspector' outfit. This basically meant wearing a suit and prescription-less glasses. Perhaps the costume was silly and unnecessary, but it helped her to get into the role and made it easier to gently modify the feelings of those who questioned her identity. Suspicion was turned into trust, belief, and attraction in the most beneficial combination. Jesse was similarly attired in a sharp suit and black-rimmed glasses. Together, they would be making an exploratory visit to Fasergen knowing it would be especially dangerous to enter the facilities. Emma and Jesse had the greatest understanding of both genetics and computers. The Psionic could covertly manipulate anyone who caused them trouble and the Molecular had powers best suited for defense, escape and evasion. Shalimar and Brennan would wait nearby in the Helix, hiding in stealth mode and ready to launch a rescue mission. Adam was too well known a figure in the world of genetics to reveal himself in public during this sort of operation. However, he knew he was dealing with one of the first children of Genomex, one of his personal creations, who might need immediate care. If they brought her in, he wanted to be onsite and so would be waiting with the cavalry in the plane, available for assistance and advice.

The government issued Chevrolet Caprice pulled up in front of Fasergen's corporate headquarters, a generic looking three-story office building in an industrial park on the outskirts of the city. Immediately as they started walking across the parking lot, Emma had misgivings.

"Jesse, let's go back. They know we are here," she said.

"Looks fine to me," he said. "You picking up on something?"

"Nothing definite…just a feeling. If I'm wrong, we can come back." Jesse was incredulous, but Emma said, "Let's go. Now. We have no time." She started back toward the car and started to get in.

"There's no way they can know. We just got here," Jesse said. He looked around and saw a man and a woman in dark suits and sunglasses making a b-line for them. "On second thought—." He ran back to the car, jumped behind the wheel next to Emma, started it up and threw it into reverse. Emma looked behind them. Two more men and a woman appeared out of thin air. The woman was holding on to the men on either side of her, apparently making all three invisible. The man on her left stepped forward and grabbed the rear of the car, stopping it. Emma and Jesse heard the front wheels spin.

"Adam, we need help!" Emma cried into her comlink.

"We'll be right with you. Hold on," came the reply.

Emma reached into the mind of the man holding their car, compelling him to jump out of the way in fear. The car bucked into reverse motion. The woman with invisibility power ran out of the way, but the other man was a Molecular similar to Jesse. He massed, becoming impervious and the rear of the car crushed against him. Jesse threw the car into drive and it lurched forward.

The woman who had been approaching them from the building stopped. She reached toward them and a pulse of red-tinged energy surged forth from her hands. Suddenly, the engine exploded, throwing the hood into the sky and shrapnel everywhere, shattering the windshield. Jesse reached over to Emma and phased them both through the burning car, pulling her toward him as they escaped through the driver's side. The man, who had been walking from the building, rushed up, opening his mouth to reveal fangs and vicious teeth. The huge Ursine Feral charged at Jesse, who threw his shoulder into the enormous chest, but was thrown backwards. A huge, paw-like hand swiped at Emma. She put up her arm to protect her head, but even so, was thrown some distance to land on the ground, dazed. The Feral turned his attention back to Jesse.

The three mutants from behind the car were closing in on the two Mutant Xers, but Emma recovered enough to hit the Molecular mutant with a psionic blast, knocking him unconscious before he could phase or join the fray. She lost track of the woman, then caught a flicker of motion from the corner of her eye as the female materialized and punched her in the face. Emma rolled with the motion, falling away from the punch and spinning around with a kick right up into the chin of the woman, who fell backwards to the ground. The mutant with super-strength grabbed her by the neck with one hand and lifted her into the air. She clawed and grabbed at his wrist, trying to support some of her weight as she gasped futilely for breath. Consciousness was beginning to slip away from her and she desperately tried to kick at his body, aiming for the groin, but he grabbed her leg and lifted her up above his head, then threw her as far as he could.

Jesse massed as the female Elemental fired flame at him. His incredible density kept the heat from transferring into his body, having no more affect on him than an electric blanket would. He clubbed the Ursine, knocking him unconscious. As the flame attack dissipated and he returned to his normal state the mutant who had thrown Emma approached him. He ducked under a kick from the woman and retreated from the pair. On the ground nearby was the crumpled hood of the car. Jesse picked it up and swung around with it at the male mutant. Like tearing a toy from a child's hands, the Fasergen mutant ripped the hood from Jesse's hands. In a show of strength, he rolled the metal up into a club and slapped it into his left hand as he came toward Jesse again.

The strongman swung the improvised club at Jesse's head, but the metal bent into a curve. Enough time had passed that the target had recharged and gone impervious again. "Mistake," Jesse said and thrust his palm into the face of the male mutant who went down as if hit with a ton of bricks. Turning, the Mutant X hero saw the female about to hit him with another burst of fire just as he had phased back into normal state. It was too soon to protect himself with his powers and the only thing he could do was to try and time his jump out of the path of the flame. Just then a bright glow passed over his shoulder and the woman fell to the ground and did not get back up.

A mud-covered Emma was walking toward him and Jesse smiled at her. "You all right?"

"Some bumps and bruises, but I guess that guy didn't know his own strength. He threw me past the parking lot and into a muddy runoff canal." Emma ran her fingers through her hair, dislodging large clumps of wet earth. They looked around and confirmed that all five Fasergen mutants were out of commission.

"Where's the Helix?" Jesse asked.

Emma shook her head. "It should have been in the air by now. Jesse and Shalimar should already be standing here with us." Worried, the two ran off in the direction of where they knew the Helix had been landed.


	5. Unbroken Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Brennan, Shalimar and Adam were monitoring their comlinks as well as the sensors for any activity in the area. When Emma's plea for help reached them, Brennan lifted off from the ground. The force of the Helix's engines caused dust and debris to be kicked up from the ground, making the general shape of the craft visible. Those few seconds were all that was needed. Hovering above Fasergen was another stealth craft. The government vehicle Adam requisitioned for Jesse and Emma had been tracked. Once it was apparent Mutant X was on to Fasergen, the ambush had been set. The instant the hazy form of the Helix became visible in the dust, the other plane closed in and opened fire with its Gatling guns, an option not included on Adam's plane.

The sounds of the impacts startled all three in the Double Helix and Brennan fought with the controls as a rain of bullets drove into the rear of the craft, tearing holes through its airframe and destroying its attitude controls. The Mutant X plane was not designed to withstand such a pummeling from armor piercing rounds and quickly tilted forward and began lifting erratically. An explosion rocked the craft and the port engine lost power. Fuel was dumping from damaged tanks and the remaining fuel was in danger of exploding as well. The starboard engine went out, but it hardly mattered as the Helix had already started falling to the ground. It crashed into a shallow, decorative pond at an abandoned business campus adjacent to the Fasergen complex.

Some of the emergency lights were still operational as water poured in through the holes where the hull of the plane had been ripped apart by gunfire. Fortunately, the lake was not deep enough to sink the Helix. Its nose and right wing were buried in the muddy water toward the center, while its shredded rear and port wing stuck up into the air. Shalimar popped open the emergency exit hatch in the ceiling above the left wing. She jumped out and quickly located the other stealth plane hovering nearby. The aircraft lurched toward her and she jumped out onto the top of the Helix and ran, zigzagging toward the aft. Even a Feral was unlikely to be able to dodge a Gatling gun so when the plane circled around and set down on the ground it was clear that the enemy's goal was capture, not kill. In full stride, Shalimar set her foot down at the extreme stern of the wrecked plane and leapt all the way to the shore. She preferred to stay out of the water, even though she was a strong swimmer.

Brennan and Adam followed Shalimar out of the escape hatch, Brennan being especially careful of the water filling the inside of the craft. "Sorry, Adam, but there's only one way to get us to shore without getting wet," he said.

"And that is?" Adam asked.

Brennan took two steps away from him and crouched down on the wing. "Climb aboard," he said. Adam looked disapproving, but it was the only way. He climbed on the tall mutant's back and Brennan used jets of electrical force to propel both of them into the air towards shore. Once they had cleared the murky muddy water, he used another blast of electricity to slow their descent and came down right by Shalimar.

"What took you?" she asked as they landed.

"Hey, I had to stop and pick up a passenger," Brennan defended himself.

Adam stood in the center with Shalimar on his left and Brennan on his right. They watched five men and women deplane and begin walking deliberately toward them. The Feral's eyes turned yellow. "They smell like New Mutants," she said.

With their backs to the lake, they prepared to fight. In an instant, a wiry male mutant closed the distance between them and launched himself at Adam, who somehow was able to toss the man into the air. His own momentum landed him in the water just short of the tail of the Helix. A second male who was short and broad, with no neck and incredibly thick arms and legs was charging like a rhinoceros, using hands and feet in a headlong sprint. Brennan launched a tesla coil that knocked him out, sending him sliding several feet, digging into the grass and coming to a stop just at Brennan's boots. Shalimar surged forward from their defensive line, engaging a female, who was to the rightmost side of the approaching foes. She clotheslined the woman, who went down with a thud on the ground, but then disappeared. Shalimar couldn't see her, but her eyes glowed and she concentrated, sniffing the air, looking for movement on the grass, listening for the slightest sound. There was no sign until the mutant reappeared, slightly dazed, with the other two females. It was teleportation, not stealth or invisibility.

One of the female attackers supported the woman Shalimar had struck, while the second woman stepped in front of them and stopped. Suddenly, all of the Mutant X team fell to the ground, their ears ringing in pain, clasping their hands to the sides of their heads. When the sound ebbed away, they opened their eyes to find themselves surrounded by agents. The five mutants from the plane were in a line again, facing them. The Rhino Feral and the one Shalimar had taken down still looked groggy and the one with super speed was noticeably wet. The woman who had not yet joined the fray or used her powers held up a subdermal governor gun. "All of you lay down on the ground and surrender. You are outnumbered." All three Mutant X members defied her and got slowly to their feet. "I said get down," the woman ordered.

Adam reached down, grabbed a rock from by his foot, and tossed it at the agents surrounding them. It passed right through—an illusion. Brennan instantly zapped the Sonic Elemental hard enough to ensure that she wouldn't get back up again for a while. The next moment, the wiry speedster had run behind him and kicked the back of his knee. As Brennan went down, he reached back, grabbed the man's suit and swung him over his body, driving the man into the ground. At the same time, Shalimar had charged at and taken down the Teleportation Molecular, finishing the job she started with a massive roundabout punch to the face. In the same move, she dropped headfirst toward the ground, catching herself with her hands in a cartwheel and kicked the Illusionist Psionic in the head. Landing on her feet, Shalimar fixed her sight on the other Feral who was charging toward Brennan again.

Brennan was hobbled, but able to stand steadily. He timed his forearm and struck the large mutant as he rammed his shoulder into Brennan's chest, throwing Brennan back to the bank of the pond, his blow having had no apparent effect. Shalimar had quickly closed the distance and leapt up on the other Feral's back, her arm around his throat, choking him. Adam came up and punched the mutant twice, two rights in the face, but he was swatted away. The Mutant X leader could hold his own against GSA agents, but New Mutants were in another league. Tightening her vise grip on her opponent's throat, she kicked out with her legs away from his body and came down with both of her knees on his kidneys. The Rhino Feral grabbed her arm, tore it from his neck and tossed Shalimar away from him, but as soon as she separated from him, a blue burst of electrical current shot through his body, knocking him down and out.

Wearily, Brennan, Shalimar and Adam regrouped. "I think we have more trouble," Adam said. Brennan and Shalimar followed Adam's eyes to where five Humvees were approaching across the grass. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and there were too many to fight.


	6. Unbroken Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Emma and Jesse arrived where they had expected the Helix to be if it hadn't launched and found nothing beyond the imprints of its landing gear in the grass. Nearby, there was a score torn in the earth and they followed that path with there eyes. They saw a sight that didn't immediately register in their brains. A few smoldering debris fires littered the area and the partially submerged wreckage of the Helix, which had skidded into a lake, could be seen with its nose sunken in the water and the remains of its stern in the air. Emma reached out and could detect the three life signs of their friends, but they were not in the wreck. She noticed the open hatch on the top of the plane, but could not pin down where Adam, Brennan and Shalimar were.

"They're alive," she told Jesse. Both looked behind them and then at the Helix again. "I sense them nearby, but I'm not sure where. Maybe they sought shelter in one of the abandoned buildings." They ran towards the wreckage, hoping they would be able to find a sign of the rest of their team and rescue them before pursuit arrived. Neither could conceive what had happened.

Halfway to the muddy lake, Emma reached out for Jesse to stop him, sensing danger ahead. From the right and left, a dozen people ran out from behind two of the derelict buildings of business complex. Another dozen were slightly further away, in pursuit from behind, presumably coming from the Fasergen site.

Jesse didn't need psionic powers to see that they were in trouble. "We'll have to try and come back for them later," he said to Emma, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the left side of the lake. The group coming from that side was slightly further away and they might be able to outdistance the angle of pursuit.

Emma and Jesse managed to edge out their pursuers by about fifty yards. Coming around the other side of the lake were two Humvees. What were presumably Fasergen agents had them hemmed in from all directions and since they were suspected of being affiliated with the Strand, they were likely to all be New Mutants. The trap had been sprung and there was no clear way out.

"This way," Emma said, and they slightly altered their course, heading for the nearest building, up a slight hill from the pond. It was a giant, abandoned office complex, formerly belonging to a now defunct international conglomerate, possibly the largest of the disused structures.

They ran full speed at a solid wall and Jesse phased himself and Emma through it and into the office building, where they found themselves in a dirty, decrepit room full of old, outmoded executive furniture. Leaving the storage room, they entered a dim hallway.

"Now what?" Jesse asked.

"They're coming from almost every direction," Emma said.

"You give me directions, I'll take us through any walls in our way." Behind them, the outer wall of the room they had just come from disappeared. Strand mutants began entering the hole. Emma launched a series of psionic blasts and took out the first few, but more were coming. As she turned away, she saw Julia Lechner behind them.

"This way," she told Jesse and they began to run, weaving a course through the enormous, mazelike building, frequently passing through walls in an attempt to throw off pursuit. But every wall they passed through soon disintegrated and their pursuit drew closer. Emma sensed only a narrow escape route. They were closing in on the pair like a horseshoe. "We're not going to get away," she told Jesse as they headed down a long straightaway, winding their way back and forth through side offices and walls in case any of their pursuers had line-of-sight powers. She realized it was futile and Jesse did as well. They were being corralled.

Emma and Jesse came to the end of the building. She knew Strand mutants were waiting for them on the other side and perhaps Jesse did too, but what else was there to do? They stepped out once again into the bright daylight and saw perhaps fifty mutants. The noose had ensnared them. The two Mutant X members walked slowly into the center of the circle. Behind them, a hole opened up in the wall they had just come through and the pursuit behind completed the surrounding circle of Links.

A man stepped forward. "The last time I saw the two of you, you were lying on slabs on the verge of death." Both Jesse and Emma recognized him immediately. It was Charles Marlowe—long thought to be dead. "We have your friends," he said, "and we have you." He held out his hands, open palmed. "We are all the same here. We are all Genomex's creations. You only need fear if you work against us."

"And what is it you are working for?" Jesse asked him. Emma sensed only malice emanating from the man.

"I want what Gabriel Ashlocke wanted. I want our kind to stop living in fear. Why should the strong restrain themselves? Why should they cower in fear, when they can rule?" All around, Emma sensed agreement; though it was clear to her that Marlowe's words were not entirely sincere.

"If you want what Ashlocke wanted, you mean to kill and subjugate innocent people," she said, not swayed by his words.

"I didn't make the rules," he responded. "They already do it to one another. The so-called 'normal people'. The richer, the handsomer, the better connected, the stronger; they all dominate those with less or who are less able. It's the 'Rule of the Jungle', my friends. Leadership is just going to change again, just as it has countless times in history. Only, this time, the leaders will truly be better than those who serve them."

His words spoke to his followers, but Emma could sense something of Marlowe's true intentions and motivations. She felt greed, revenge, and hatred. Marlowe's world was not one she would choose to inhabit. "I don't really want to surrender," Jesse said quietly to Emma.

"Neither do I," she told him. She positioned herself so that she was back to back with Jesse.

"You can take us by force, but we will not go with you willingly," Jesse called out.

Emma reached into Marlowe's mind. "Didn't I tell you we were all of one kind? We will not take you by force. You may go, but expect no mercy if you ever attempt to follow Adam Kane's lead and cross our path again." He turned to his followers and said, "Let them go. They are New Mutants and have not harmed us. They may leave and I hope that someday, they will join us in the Strand."

Jesse took Emma's hand and together they left the circle and headed toward the distant highway that ran between dozens of industrial parks on this side of the city. They had only made it a hundred yards when a burst of energy hit them from behind, knocking both to the ground.

Neither had known about the stealth plane that took down the Helix. Marlowe had put it on standby outside of precise psionic detection range and given strict orders should he cease acting like himself. With so many minds around her in every direction Emma had not sensed the minds aboard the aircraft. Seeing what happened below and that the two mutants they had been pursuing were escaping, the pilot had closed in and a psionic aboard had fired a stun burst at them. As Emma fell forward, consciousness was rapidly leaving her, though as a psionic herself, she held on a few seconds longer than Jesse. It was just long enough. She reached out with her powers to her fallen friend and the other thee members of Mutant X, who she now detected were being held on the stealth plane, and instinctively performed one final act before darkness captured her.


	7. Unbroken Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Adam was despondent when he saw Emma and Jesse carried into the stealth plane storage compartment where he and the others were being held. He had hoped that they would get away. All five members of Mutant X were now cuffed at the wrists and ankles with a third set of cuffs connecting the two, which would prevent any of them from standing or making any kind of offensive move against their captors. In addition, the four mutants had been restrained with subdermal governors. Emma and Jesse were still unconscious when they were placed in with the others. Once the door closed again, it was impossible to judge their conditions, as the compartment was not lit.

"This is all my fault," Adam said. "I sent you into a trap."

"We knew it was dangerous, Adam," Shalimar said. "Everything we do is dangerous."

"But we haven't come up against this before. I had no idea that their level of organization was this high. I should have known. Whoever took over the Strand after Ashlocke has them working together with a ruthless efficiency."

"You couldn't have known," Brennan said.

"If I couldn't have known, then it's even worse than I thought. That would mean the Strand is out of our league and we can't compete with them. I can't let myself believe that's true. Who would stop them?"

"Ouch, my head," said a voice.

"Emma?" Shalimar asked.

"Why can't I see?" Emma asked.

"We're locked in a closet," Brennan said. "The light only comes on when you open the door."

"I remember a plane appearing out of nowhere," Emma said.

"Probably the stealth plane we are aboard now. It looks like the same base model as the Helix, but apparently an armed and armored version. It shot us down when we tried to answer your call," Adam said.

"Jesse?"

"He hasn't come to yet, but he's here with us," Shalimar said.

"Adam, where is Sanctuary?" Emma asked.

"Why would you ask me that?" Adam wondered for a moment if this might not be the real Emma and that this was a trick to get him to reveal information, but when part of his mind attempted instinctually to retrieve the information as to where Sanctuary was, it couldn't. He tried again, concentrating. There was nothing. He even attempted to replay the course they had flown to the Fasergen complex, but at a certain point, everything became hazy. The pattern formed and he realized what had happened. "What did you do, Emma?"

"Shalimar, Brennan, tell me about the mutant underground?"

"I can't remember anything about it," Shalimar said. Brennan agreed.

"Did anyone get the license number of that truck?" It was Jesse's voice.

"Great line, Jess," Brennan said. "It's no wonder you get all the girls."

"Give me a break. My brain feels like it's been turned to jell-o. I guess our mad dash for freedom was a bit pointless, huh, Emma?" Jesse said.

"It bought us some valuable time," she replied.

"How so?"

"Jesse, can you give me the addresses of any safe houses?" Emma asked him.

"Why? I know of…," his voice drifted off. " I can't think of any."

"Good," she said.

"Emma, did you somehow erase our memories?" Adam asked her.

"I can't do that, but what I could do is surround all of the knowledge about Mutant X, Sanctuary, the underground and safe houses with feelings of such intense panic, that your minds won't let you access the information. If a psionic tries to take the information by force, it will probably send you into a coma."

"Can it be undone?" Shalimar asked.

"Yes, I can undo it," Emma reassured her.

"Emma," Adam said, "if they discover the blocks, they will know you are the only one they can get any information from."

"You didn't have to do that, Emma," Brennan said in an accusing voice. "There's no way I would have told those goons anything."

"I know, but if they are after information, it won't be a standard interrogation and I can ward off psionic probes and attacks longer than any of you. These are New Mutants and they will use their powers. Hopefully, I can hold them off long enough for the rest of you to rescue me."

"Everyone, Emma's right," Adam said. "I've taught you techniques to evade esper probes of your minds, but she is better equipped than any of you and can hold out longer."

"Even with a subdermal governor?" Jesse asked.

"Subdermal governors prevent the projection of your powers, mainly through intense pain," Adam explained. "They don't make your powers disappear. Emma is still a psionic and can use all of her powers to defend her brain, but cannot read or attack others. The governor can actually work as a defense mechanism and make it much more difficult for an attacking psionic to penetrate her mind long enough to gather significant intelligence. There's even the possibility that they would actually remove it for interrogation, though only as a last resort."

"I don't see how a subdermal governor can protect a mutant," Brennan said, "except maybe in cases where their powers are spinning out of control."

"The governor might help if you had the mental control to use it to your advantage. When a psionic wearing a governor is attacked, she instinctively defends herself with her own powers, but does not reach out and project. If she feels that she is losing the struggle and her attacker is close to getting something from her, she can extend to the point regulated by the governor and trigger it, thereby inducing immense pain that will break all other thought. Her attacker will have to start over again."

"So any of us could kick an esper out of our mind by trying to use our powers and thereby triggering the governor," Brennan extrapolated.

"Maybe, but they could always soak you in water and remove it, leaving you totally defenseless, unless you wanted to electrocute yourself into unconsciousness." Adam's words were not reassuring. He clearly thought highly of their opponent in terms of their competency. "I just hope they didn't get anything from us before Emma placed the blocks. I thought I sensed a cursory probe of my mind, but I don't think they were looking for more than confirmation of our numbers and personnel distribution at the time."

"What do you think Marlowe is after?" Jesse asked Adam.

"Marlowe?" That name immediately produced an association in his mind, but that association was impossible.

"Yes," Emma said. "Apparently Charles Marlowe has risen from the grave and is the new leader of the Strand."

"Charles Marlowe…I saw him die. Eckhart cremated the body. There was nothing left." Adam was in disbelief.

"There must have been enough somewhere to regenerate from, because it was definitely him," Jessie said.

"What could he want?" All were silent after that until Adam spoke again, saying, "We're landing."


	8. Unbroken Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The door to the storage compartment where Mutant X had been imprisoned opened and the light blinded them. A large man grabbed Brennan and Jesse by the chains connecting their wrists to their ankles and carried them from the plane. A woman nearly as large picked up Adam and Shalimar in the same manner. No one could tell if Emma followed. They were taken through a large hangar where three stealth planes were housed and brought through a series of corridors to finally be deposited on the hard-rubberized floor of a room with three concrete walls and one made of mirrored glass. A key was thrown into the cell as the two strong Fasergen agents left. Emma had not been left with them.

Shalimar managed to wriggle over to the key and use it to unlock Brennan who in turn released the other three. There was not much to inspect of their surroundings once their fetters were loose. The floor of the square room was perhaps twelve feet on a side and the ceiling appeared to be about twenty feet high and made of a metal grating that some dim light passed through. The room's only other features were a bathroom stall and sink in one corner.

Suddenly the mirrored glass became transparent and their captor appeared, smiling at them. "Charles Marlowe," Adam said returning the smile. "You look good, all things considered." He looked exactly the same as two years ago when he died.

"I wish I could say the same, but you and your team are a bit dirty and banged up." He seemed pleased by this.

"Where's Emma?" Shalimar demanded, stepping to Adam's side.

"She apparently has decided to make things a little more difficult for us, but it doesn't matter much. We have plenty of time. Of course, if you would just let me know where your little hideout is, things will go much easier for Miss De Lauro." Marlowe laughed. "But then, you can't tell me anymore, can you? I'm afraid I'm going to have to break your little redhead." Shalimar surged forward at the glass, pounding it so hard she bruised her arms, but Marlowe just laughed and disappeared as the wall returned to its mirrored state.

When the rest of Mutant X was removed from the storage compartment on the plane, Emma assumed she would be joining them, but instead she was brought down several levels into a concrete hallway where a man in a white lab coat was waiting. He was holding a high voltage stun stick and when he touched the purple electric glow to her temple, she immediately lost consciousness again.

Only dimly aware of her surroundings, Emma awoke, unsure of how much time had passed. She felt like she was horizontal, lying on her face, but was not even certain of that. Slowly, her systems began coming back online, but she was sluggish as if drugged. There was an acute ache at the base of her skull that ran down her spine and through her whole body. The pain also filled her skull like a terrible migraine. She couldn't concentrate or come to terms with who she was or how she had gotten there. Apart from pain and confusion, her brain sensed nothing. She tried to reach out with her mind, forgetting the subdermal governor, and the pain that greeted her was so intense, that it felt like skull was filled with fire. On the back of her neck, she found what she should have remembered was already there—a cylindrical metal stud. She couldn't figure out what was wrong. Her arms and legs were leaden. She opened her eyes and tried to watch her hand and arm move in front of her face, but there was only blackness. Her arm felt like a waterlogged piece of wood. Although she knew it moved and touched her face to prove it, she was disconnected from the limb and had trouble getting her fingers to obey her brain. She shifted her position, trying to sit up, but her entire body was numb on the surface with an unrelenting pain at its core. With difficulty, she managed to maneuver herself into an upright position, leaning against the hard cold wall. Apparently Fasergen didn't use a standard Taser. She would have to be sure to avoid their stun sticks in the future.

After several hours passed, Emma started feeling sensation again, though the pain remained inside her. It felt as though red-hot coals were burning away the gray matter of her brain. Her eyes ached whether they were opened or closed and she had become aware of a ringing in her ears. Her tongue felt like it was covered in lint and she could only smell a metallic, somewhat aluminum, scent. When feeling completely returned to her, she began feeling her body from head to toe, trying to find out how badly hurt she was. Her legs were sensitive in some places, probably bruised, but intact, as was her torso. She didn't seem to have damaged her arms, hands or fingers, though there were bruises everywhere, mainly from her being thrown. The mud had cushioned her fall, but it hadn't exactly been soft. Touching the left side of her head made her wince instantly. She remembered the punch delivered to her face in the parking lot as she felt her jaw line. The stealth mutant must have hit her just right, because the whole side of her face was swollen. At her temple, she could feel a blister from the burn of the purple electric arc when she was zapped.

Emma finally felt confident enough in her recovery to attempt to get up. She stood and, before reaching her full height, smacked her head on the ceiling. She fell hard down to the ground again in pain. When she recovered, she stood again, but slowly this time. The ceiling was only about five feet high. She felt around and soon found that the room she was in was simply a five-foot cube, small and featureless, except for a metal toilet and a small metal sink like you would find in a prison. There was nothing for her to do, nothing she could do, but sit there in the dark. She believed she was still dressed in the same clothing she had been wearing and could feel the caked mud that remained in some of the folds of her outfit. At some point she had lost her shoes and her stocking socks had torn, leaving her barefoot with two nylon bands around her ankles.

As the hours passed by, her senses returned completely to normal. It was strange spending so many hours without feeling any emotions apart from her own. She had never worn a subdermal governor so long. Time passed and she inspected her cell again. She located a tiny jet of air on one side and a tiny suction on the other. At least they didn't mean for her to suffocate. She occupied herself by trying as best she could to wash some of the dirt and grime from her body and clothes. Whenever she was thirsty, she drank from the sink, but she was becoming hungrier and hungrier by the hour. She wished she had eaten breakfast, but she was always too nervous to eat before a mission and hadn't had anything since the night before. Hopefully, someone would be by to feed her soon.

It seemed like three days passed. Perhaps it was more. Emma wasn't sure and didn't know how long she had lain there unconscious before she initially awoke. No one had fed her or in any way communicated with her. Her stomach growled with hunger. She tried to get someone's attention—anyone's.

"Hello?" she cried out, hearing her voice loud as the space was too small to truly echo and the sound all stayed in the cell, bouncing back at her. "Is anyone there?" She had never felt so alone. Her telempathy was gone. She tried again to force her mind to reach out, but was answered only by pain. She doubled over on the floor, tearing at her hair as her brain felt ready to explode. She screamed herself hoarse and lay panting and crying for hours, unable to move.

Two weeks passed and Emma was starving. She was a slim woman already, but she could feel her legs and arms getting dangerously thin. Water alone would not be enough to sustain her much longer. Her body had gone into starvation mode and she knew she should be able to hang on physically for three or four more weeks, but that seemed an impossibility based on how far her condition had already declined. The unaccustomed mental isolation was making her feel that her mind was slipping from her. She was completely drained of energy and couldn't distract herself from constantly dwelling on the hopelessness of her situation. She began to wonder if she had simply been forgotten.

With difficulty, Emma managed to get to the sink and drink some water. The effort left her fatigued and she lay in the fetal position on the floor. For days she had been hallucinating. Adam appeared to her.

"Emma, everything is going to be alright. It's just a bad dream. You'll wake up and this will all go away," he said.

"But it's not a dream, I can't wake up!" She wasn't sure if she said it aloud or to herself or maybe she was dreaming. Reality was slipping away from her. She was used to the mental energy of her team surrounding her and feeling the people beyond Sanctuary. She could sense them too, from boats on the water, in passing aircraft and the constant emotions emanating from the city. There was magic to the life force she had always felt around her and being stripped of it was worse than the other deprivations of her cell. Even during the brief times she had been subjected to a subdermal governor in the past, she had at least been around people. Whether they supported her or were against her, she was comforted by the presence of other living things, especially other intelligences. Here, there were none. She wondered if she could maintain her sanity long enough to finally die of starvation, or would she eventually spend her last few days insane.


	9. Unbroken Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Apparently Charles Marlowe had discovered even before they landed that the information he was looking for had been well secured from him in the minds of Adam, Jesse, Brennan and Shalimar. He seemed to be content to let them rot in their cell at least for the first stage of interrogation. Presumably he was occupying himself with Emma, which worried them all. For the past week, they had been fed twice a day and taken one at a time for showers every two days. Changes of clothing had also been provided. Though they had debated and wracked their brains every waking hour, none of the Mutant X members could come up with an escape plan. They were always too well guarded by the Links.

"How long can Emma hold out?" Shalimar asked. It was the question all had asked themselves, but none had given voice to until now.

"I don't know," Adam said. "Emma's potential is off the scale. You can never underestimate her, but she can't hold out forever. No more than a month if they know what they are doing."

"So long?" Shalimar was surprised.

"Finding specific information in someone's brain against their will is difficult in a non-mutant, let alone in one of the most powerful Psionics every produced by Genomex. They will be going after her mind, which is her strength. To penetrate her cerebrum when she is prepared for it is near impossible. Imagine if you had to evade capture in a nearly infinite wilderness, Shalimar. How long would it take ten ferals to catch you, if you were given a full day's head start?"

"They might never," Shalimar said with a smirk.

"Exactly. That would be attacking your strength when you knew it was coming and had time to get ready. It will be the same for Emma. They will have to create an advantage through psychological or physical means. It could be sleep deprivation, noise, lights, drugs or even torture. They'll probably threaten to hurt us if Emma doesn't cooperate." Adam paused. "They may even do it."

Jesse was as protective of Emma as Shalimar. "They would torture her?"

"Maybe. I don't believe they would do her permanent physical harm, but they will hurt her until she talks. Hopefully, that's not just wishful thinking. Actually, I wish I had told her to just tell them anything they want to know," Adam said. "Eventually she will anyway. Of course, she wouldn't have listened."

"While there is life, there is hope," Brennan quoted. "We still might get our chance to bust out of here."

Later that day, the mirrored wall cleared again and Charles Marlowe was standing in front of them with Maria Raven at his side. They all recognized the African American former bartender. Apparently, she had come to the aid of a new monster after Shalimar killed the first one more than a year ago…twice.

"Taking up with new scum, I see, Maria," Shalimar said. "He's worse than Caleb. He doesn't even have any reason for what he is doing."

"Caleb killed New Mutants. I was afraid then, but now I am helping our kind. Charles just wants us to assume our proper place."

"You two ladies can catch up another time," Marlowe said, interrupting them. "Adam, we need your help."

"And why would I help you?"

"One of our most valuable members, Julia Lechner, has been feeling ill lately, and it is getting worse. I believe you know her."

"Yes, I know her," Adam said. "I believe she is undergoing a unique mutation. The heists led us to her and Fasergen and her. We actually came here to try and help her."

"And find out what we're up to? That was part of it too. You've never been terribly selfless, Adam." Marlowe's smirk was enough to anger anyone and Adam could feel his ire rising. "Well, you'll have your chance, at least for part one. Step toward the door and you three," he said indicating Jesse, Shalimar and Brennan, "stand on other side of the room."

"First, what have you done with Emma?" Adam demanded.

"She's alive and well." Suddenly, a section of the glass wall turned into a green-tinted image of Emma sitting against a wall. It disappeared. "I can't say that she's happy being locked away in a dark room by herself, but we haven't hurt her. At least not much."

"If you do…," Adam began, but he was interrupted.

"The only one I would kill is you, Adam," Marlowe said. "Eventually, I will convert your mutant friends." The door to the cell opened and two Links escorted Adam into the outer hallway. Marlowe and Raven joined him.

"I'll need to try and salvage some of my equipment from the Helix," Adam told Marlowe.

"We have it in our hangar. Maria will be your handler for this. She can contact me if there is anything you need that she cannot provide." With that, Charles Marlowe departed down the hallway and his assistant and an escort in front and behind brought Adam to the hangar.

"You do know your new boss is an amoral lunatic," Adam said in a tone halfway between question and statement.

"He's a man of vision and a worthy successor to Gabriel Ashlocke," Maria told him.

"Another lunatic."

"One man's lunatic is another man's messiah," Maria stated.

"Do you seriously believe in Marlowe's plan? I know the man. I don't think he even believes it." Ms. Raven made no response. "Humanity is not ready to openly embrace New Mutants and they sure as hell aren't going to let themselves be ruled by them."

"They won't have a choice in the face of our powers," she said.

"Normal humans outnumber mutants by as many as a million to one. Can you subjugate a million people by yourself? He's sold you on this ridiculous dream that will not happen. If New Mutants attempted to take control of this country or any country, they would face armed resistance. Non-mutants they may be, but if they are shooting to kill, their weapons make up for any disadvantage that might bring. Also, there are many mutants, like you for instance, whose mutations give them no true advantage over non-mutants. Trust me, Marlowe has something else planned and there is nothing you should fear more than a man who does not fear his own death."

Maria Raven did not respond to what Adam had said to her. He decided to let his words seep in and did not try to sell her on his beliefs any further. They came finally to the hangar and the Strand member who had been walking in front of them opened the door to let them in. Adam immediately located the wreckage of the Helix.

"We had to cut off the wings to bring your plane here by truck," Maria told him.

The wrecked rear of the plane had been cut off and a ramp set up allowing easy access to the inside of the Helix. Adam climbed in and began gathering the tools he would need to examine Julia Lechner thoroughly. Presumably, Fasergen would already have most of what he needed, so it was only his custom tools and software that he needed to retrieve. Raven and the two Link escorts watched him carefully the whole time to make sure he did not acquire a weapon of any kind.

"That should be all I need, at least at the diagnosis stage."

"All right then, we'll head to the lab and hopefully you will be able to help Julia." Following the twisting path of corridors, they came at last to a doorway with a sign outside that read 'Laboratory Four'. As they were about to enter, the entire wall the door was in began to crumble away before their very eyes.


	10. Unbroken Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Emma felt an odd sensation of the entire world, suddenly being jarred. It was as if Atlas had been squatting and suddenly, he stood up. The next movement was in a horizontal direction, but was accompanied by a methodical up-and-down motion. She heard indistinct noises from outside the walls of her tiny cell—scraping, a motor, what might have been shouted commands. Some of the sounds coincided with a vibration in the concrete floor she was lying on. Eventually, the horizontal motion stopped and if felt like she was rising in an elevator. She was too weak to even change her position, let alone respond to this change in her environment. Already at a point beyond despair, Emma had lost hope of being rescued or even having contact with a human being again. There was a short downward motion, followed by a thud below her and noises like metal on rock above her. When the ceiling was removed from her cell, she could hardly comprehend what was happening. The light seemed somehow brighter than light had ever been. It was blinding even through her eyelids.

"Emma DeLauro?" a voice said. She wondered whose voice it was, not recognizing it. For weeks she had expected to hear Marlowe telling her what a fool she had been to sacrifice herself for Adam's lost cause. Eventually she had hoped for it. The important thing was that it was a voice not her own. Relief from isolation was more important to her now than even food. She mustered up her waning strength and rolled over. One of the four walls was taken away from the cell and she vaguely realized that she had been imprisoned in a cement box. Her box was on the floor of a freight elevator. With her eyes squinted against the light, she looked around and found the source of the first words she had heard. An enormous man was looking down at her. He was still holding a five foot square piece of concrete that was six inches thick. Presumably, he had carried her container to this point and she could hardly imagine what kind of strength that would take. He leaned the wall section against the remaining walls of her cell and she could sense how heavy it must be by the sound.

There was another voice. "Can you stand up?" she was asked. Emma looked in the direction of the wall that had been removed and could see Charles Marlowe standing before her. His voice was wonderful and magical to her. It was amazing—two living, breathing human beings. Hearing another voice, a real voice was more important to her than anything. Somehow, slowly, she managed to stand. She was terrified that if she didn't they might seal her up again.

"Come with me," Marlowe instructed. Slowly, supporting herself on the wall and pausing frequently, she managed to follow him. He waited when she needed to rest, mindful of her weakened state and the stiffness of her muscles. It was only a short walk, before she was ushered into a long room with a table in the center. Some part of her mind dimly recognized it as an interrogation room. Six people were already seated at the far ends of the room along the walls. "Sit down, Miss DeLauro." Gratefully, Emma sat down. She laid her hands on the table, but she was so disturbed by how thin her arms had become, she hid them from sight. "I have some questions for you." Marlowe shuffled some papers and laid them on the table, taking a seat across from her. "Wait just one second," he said and beckoned to a woman who had followed them into the room. He briefly gave her some instructions and then she went back out into the hall. Emma was found herself going from joyous at finally seeing other people, to overwhelmed by how many there were.

The woman who had left reentered with a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup, which she placed in front of Marlowe. Then she took a seat behind Emma, just inside the door. Emma's mouth watered and her eyes focused in on the steam rising up from the liquid in the bowl across from her. The smell filled the air and she began to cry as it filled her nostrils.

"Like I said, I have some questions for you," Marlowe said. "I mainly would like to confirm some things your friends have already told me."

"That's a lie," she accused. Of course, she couldn't be sure. She could not read Marlowe.

"So you say." He pulled out a piece of paper, put it aside and began eating the soup. Emma knew it was possible she had failed in her attempt to wall off every piece of information in the minds of her teammates that might lead the Strand to the location of Sanctuary, Adam's research and the mutant underground. Given time, fragments of memory they retained could be pieced together and Marlowe's people might have been able to reconstruct them into the answers they were seeking. Maybe she should have blocked out their memories completely, but if she did that, who would come to her rescue? There had been so little time then and she hadn't wanted to risk damaging her friends permanently. Why hadn't they come for her? Were they still alive? The seeds of doubt had been planted. Emma didn't know if there was anything left to fight for. "Where is Sanctuary?" Marlowe asked.

"W—," she couldn't get a word out. She hadn't spoken, at least not to someone who would have to understand her in weeks. "What is Sanctuary?" she managed to respond. They wouldn't have left her to starve for weeks if Mutant X's secrets had already been revealed. She had to believe there was still something to fight for.

Marlowe took a few more spoonfuls of soup and Emma thought she would die. "Can you give me some locations of mutant safe houses?"

"I—I don't know what those are," she responded weakly.

"Do you have any knowledge of Genomex technology or subsequent genetic technology developed by Adam Kane?" Marlowe wanted to know.

"I…," she drifted off as he tilted the soup bowl and filled his spoon with the last of the noodles and chunks of chicken.

"You were saying," he prompted, holding his spoon in front of his face in her clear view.

"I just know Genomex went out of business." She watched the spoon, "They were sold off in some sort of restructuring." She massaged her temples; the pain was returning to her brain and eating away at her sanity.

"The pain you are feeling in your mind is caused by the subdermal governor we are using. The plans for building the device, as well as the research, were destroyed and we have been unable to fully recreate some of its subtleties." She wondered what problem with the governor would cause this kind of pain in her head. "Your resistance does us no harm. You are the only one who suffers. You and your friends."

"I don't know where you'd find the information about them," she said. Emma winced. "It didn't hurt me before. Someone's trying to get into my head." She screamed and clutched her skull.

"Tell me about Adam Kane?"

Emma could barely keep a hold on her mind. "He's made some discoveries, but you can read all about them in the scientific journals," she said.

Marlowe put the spoon in his mouth and it emerged emptied. Emma felt a sob choking her throat, but now it was from the pain in her mind, not from hunger.

"Emma DeLauro, you are going to die. I don't want you to die and I won't kill you, but if you do not cooperate with us, I will not help you to live. You will not eat and you will die. If you tell me what I want to know, I will let you have the rest of the broth in this bowl." Psionics poked and prodded at her brain.

Emma's blue eyes saw nothing then but the bowl. Even the searing pain in her head dispersed at the sight of food. The odor of chicken noodle soup still filled the air. She could see small pieces of the meat and pasta still floating in the broth. She thought about her short twenty-two years of life and she thought about the team, but most of all, she thought about the soup.

Sobs of grief wracked her pale, fragile body, but she didn't talk. She wanted to tell him about Stormking Mountain and the addresses of the safehouses she knew off the top of her head and where to look up the others. She wanted to tell him about Adam's research and that Mutant X maintained a database of all of Genomex's research, even that conducted under Mason Eckhart. Not everything she thought was coherent, but she came to the determination that she would not break for a bowl of soup. She would not in any way let down her defenses against the psionics in the room who where trying to get inside of her as she was distracted by her hunger.

Emma DeLauro and Charles Marlowe locked eyes. Despite her inability to use her powers, she was still adept at reading people. Years of being certain, without a doubt, about what everyone she saw was feeling had made her an expert at matching body language and facial expressions to emotions. Since she knew what people were really feeling, she could even see how they were trying to mask their true feelings and what that looked like. Though her empathy powers were cut off, a lifetime of experience had taught her the emotions that the expression on Marlowe's face corresponded with. He was frustrated. Rather than feeling remorse for what he had done to her, he felt anger that she continued to resist. He did desire to kill her, but neither did he place any value on her life. She almost pitied him. Marlowe was a dead in a living shell. No matter what, a man like this could never be allowed the knowledge she possessed. She would die to stop him.

Finally, Marlowe picked up the bowl and threw it across the table, just over her shoulder, at the woman sitting behind her. "I'm tired of this game," Marlowe said. "Just break her." He left the room.

Emma's hands shook as she carefully tried to order her mind for what was going to happen. She had insulated herself from the pain caused by the Psionics gently digging into her psyche for anything she might reveal while Marlowe talked to her, but now hse would face an all-out assault. Two weeks ago, she felt she could have held them off indefinitely, but now, she didn't know. It began and she screamed.


	11. Unbroken Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Brennan, Shalimar and Jesse had all been afraid for Adam. Now, two members of their team were missing and there was nothing they could do about it. If Marlowe and the Strand truly intended to create a mutant-ruled world, those with mutant abilities, even if opposed to the Strand's goals, might be spared, but Adam was a normal human. What would happen when he outlived his usefulness?

Nearly twelve hours after Adam was taken, he was returned to the cell. Shalimar rushed up to him and hugged him once his escorts closed the door. "We've all been so worried since they took you."

"They were truthful in what they wanted me for. Julia Lechner is in a very bad state," he said.

"She seemed strong enough when she was coming after me and Emma," Jesse said.

"That flagrant use of power may have accelerated her deterioration. We were right to seek her out and it might already be too late. She is very unstable. She turned one of the walls of the lab into dust just as I arrived on the scene."

"How is she?" Jesse asked.

"Bad, but not as bad as the three Links who were standing by the wall of the lab when she disintegrated it. They turned instantly to dust. I put a subdermal governor on her to protect the rest of the research staff, and myself. Her internal condition continues to deteriorate and it is always possible that the governor will not be able to keep up."

"Then you are helping them?" Brennan said in an accusing voice.

"Brennan, I'm helping _her_," Adam emphasized the distinction. "I'm a doctor. If I can help, I will. Her condition is the result of my research. And remember, she is older than the four of you. What she is suffering could be your future. As with previous mutations, this wasn't foreseen by any of us at Genomex. If possible, I will get one of you permission to help me in the lab. We will be closely supervised, of course, but sitting here in this cell has not provided us with any opportunities."

"Did you see Emma?" Shalimar asked. Adam just shook his head slowly.

They were all silent for a moment. Getting one of them out of the prison for a while opened up a faint hope of escape. None spoke the thought, though. They knew they were being monitored, though Marlowe would already know the risks of letting Adam out of his cage. Would he ever risk letting another of them out?

The next morning two guards came again to escort Adam to the lab. Julia Lechner was strapped down to an examination table in the middle of the room. Adam looked at the wall made up of bare four by fours and particleboard. Working with Lechner could be life threatening and he was not entirely confident in the subdermal governor's ability to contain her. Today, the woman's eyes were open. She was awake and could see the arrival of Adam and his escort.

Julia asked, "Will all of these New Mutants fall apart like me?"

"You aren't falling apart," Adam said.

"I've been falling apart since I left you all those years ago."

"What happened between us shouldn't have. I was too old for you and I was your doctor. It was a mistake to let you get as close as I did," Adam said. It had only been a kiss, but it was a breach of ethics and morals. That moment of weakness and his subsequent refusal to let things go any further had alienated the young woman.

"Seems you made a lot of mistakes back then," Lechner accused. "One good thing came from it. Your rejection gave me the strength to run away."

"I made sure the G.S.A. didn't find you until I lost track of you as well."

"At least that's something." Suddenly, the fight seemed to go out of her. "Those times are long past, but don't think they are forgotten." There was silence in the room until she finally asked, "So, what is wrong with me?"

"There is a minor glitch with your genetic mutation. It is evolving in an unanticipated way. We need to find a way to stabilize it."

"Tell the three people who were standing by that wall yesterday that it is just a 'minor glitch'," Lechner said bitterly.

"I can understand your resentment. Genomex did not treat you well. I did not treat you well," Adam said, "but you have to believe I am here to help you. I'm sure Charles Marlowe would not have given me access to you if he felt there was any other chance of saving you."

"I thought you said it was a minor problem?" she said, spitting the words.

"For now, it is. The main danger was the one you posed to others. With the subdermal governor, that danger is erased. Your internal condition is not perfect, but you are not yet on death's door."

Adam swabbed under Julia's tongue to collect a sample of her DNA and stepped to the holographic bio-simulator, which had been retrieved from the Helix and placed in one corner of the room. He examined the fresh slide and compared it to his research from Sanctuary, which was still in the emulator's memory. He also factored in the Fasergen samples Marlowe's people had taken and the results from yesterday. He entered the analysis of the new sample into a scatter diagram plotting her deterioration. It was accelerating…quickly. Adam wished he hadn't been forced to fry all of the computer systems on the Helix when they were forced to abandon it. He also wished he had access to Sanctuary's computers. It felt as if he was operating with one hand tied behind his back.

Two weeks of work in the lab passed by quickly. Adam had failed to get any of the other members of Mutant X out of the cell to assist him, but he had managed to sneak out materials with which he deactivated his team's subdermal governors while making them still appear functional. Even if Marlowe and his people did not realize what he had done, they were still not in a position to escape. He had struggled to prevent Brennan from launching a tesla coil at the door and leading them from their prison. It was especially difficult to do so without speaking any words or making any obvious gestures that could be observed, but the closeness of the team and their experiences together allowed such subtle communication to be possible. Adam realized that they had no idea how to get out of the facility or off the grounds, they didn't know where to find Emma and unless an opportunity presented itself, they were impossibly outnumbered. On his trips to and from the lab, Adam saw dozens of Links positioned around their cell. They could also see the shadows of the guards up above them. Even so, Brennan would occasionally lose patience. He would head toward the door or begin to pass one hand over the other preparatory to making an electrical charge. Adam would give a sharp shake of the head or Shalimar would place a gently restraining hand on his arm and he would desist. She and Jesse had been in Mutant X longer and had a deeper trust of Adam. They did not question his prohibition against immediate action. An ambush might already be set, because Adam knew that even these delicate gestures and interactions might be enough to tip their hand to Marlowe's people. Given Marlowe's thoroughness so far, he might be in a constant state of readiness for an escape attempt even without any evidence. Since Charles Marlowe had no fear for his own safety, he might just be waiting to see what they would do.

During Adam's two weeks of studying Julia Lechner, why his team brooded and waited for a chance to bust out, the patient underwent a significant change for the worse. Now, select Strand mutants stood watch around the clock at his request. Their powers made them adept at restraining a subject. When Adam entered the lab one morning for another day of work Lechner was twitching and yelling that she was in pain. Adam administered a shot of midazolam to calm her, but it had no effect. He filled a syringe to give another injection, but as he approached, Julia looked at him and suddenly there was a sound like an enormous explosion. Adam was thrown back ten feet and went sliding along the ground unconscious. The Fasergen lab technicians who had been assisting Adam were holding their ears, as were the Strand guards.

Julia writhed on the table. All of the laboratory equipment began sparking with bright blue electrical current. The guards and technicians shook as electricity rocked their bodies. Sparks and small explosions broke out all around them.

Balls of burning fire appeared around Lechner's bindings and they disappeared. She rose from the table. The floor rumbled. The ceiling above cracked apart and the roof was caving in all around. Julia was about to disintegrate the entire building and everyone around her. Two of the Link guards recovered. One was a psionic and fired a stun blast at Lechner, who staggered, but didn't go down. The second mutant launched a blast of icy blue cold that hit the woman, throwing her back into the wall, collapsed in extreme hypothermia next to Adam.


	12. Unbroken Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The initial assault on her brain had been difficult for Emma to drive back. She was weak with hunger and the smell of food in the air struggled for her concentration. Psionics probed her brain at all levels seeking information. Emma had to be in a dozen places at once, balancing her defenses, hiding information by writing fake pathways in her memory to confuse her attackers. Her subdermal governor prevented her from launching any offensive action against the Links who were crawling through her skull, but she did have ways of getting at them.

A telepath reached for Emma's surface thoughts. He tried to manipulate her by asking questions into her mind about the information being sought.

_Where is your Mutant X Sanctuary?_

Instead of Stormking Mountain, Emma thought, _What is Marlowe's hidden agenda?_

_Who has access to the New Mutant database? _He asked her.

_Is it right to torture your own kind at the behest of megalomaniac who Gabriel Ashlocke never named as successor?_

Every thought Emma had was meant to question and instill doubt in her attacker. She never let the real answers to his inquiries rise to the surface.

A female telempath sought images tied to feelings of safety and family, hoping these would lead to images of Sanctuary and what Emma would see when she returned to this place. Emma, however, steered her in a different direction. She thought of horrible things. She remembered waking up Christmas morning to the death of her first cat. She thought about her parents who were no parents to her at all and the empty hole that left in her heart. Emma remembered every disappointment and humiliation as well as all the terrible things she had seen since joining Mutant X. She knew as a telempath what such images could do to the Link who was reading her.

Charles Marlowe walked into the room, smiling. He seemed to thrive on Emma's suffering, which disgusted one of the Links who was in the room. She fired a psionic blast and knocked Marlowe out and then came up to Emma and pulled her from her chair.

"I can't take this anymore," she said. "I want to take you from this place."

Emma shook her head. She was still sitting in her chair. Marlowe had not been in the room and none of her attackers had turned on their leader. It was merely an illusion. For hours she was subjected to seeing her friends tortured, her eyes gouged out and guns put to her head. There was no way to get back at this kind of psionic power, but Emma knew they would likely hold her until she broke. They wouldn't kill her. Anything beyond what she knew to be in this room must be an illusion. Even if they were to torture the real Shalimar in front of her, there would be no way to distinguish it from the illusion, while she was wearing a subdermal governor, making such a tactic ineffective. She could not and would not trust anything outside of her own brain.

The attacks largely targeted Emma's frontal lobes and cerebral cortex, trying to get her to think about the information they desired. With unlimited time the Strand mutants were also able to probe parts of her brain not easily accessible even to Emma herself. She felt a prod into her cerebellum. Emma had flown into Sanctuary so many times, that she did it without thought, which meant this area might hold its location. Manipulating this part of the hindbrain was difficult, but she was able to locate the information and obfuscate the instructions. She would have to learn to fly home by the coordinates again, but it was a small price to pay for security.

Even the parietal and occipital lobes were targets. Since these were the parts of her brain that integrated sight, sound, taste, and touch with memory, it might be possible to piece together enough information to zero in on a location based on her impressions of it. Emma tried to stay a few steps ahead of these psionics, creating confusing associations. Unless she restored the pathways later, Sanctuary would always conjure up images of hiking in Finland, the sounds of a traffic jam, the feel of ice and the taste of chocolate brownies. Let them try to do something with that, she thought to herself.

From deep inside of her, Emma felt an anger welling up. The fury peaked and turned into incredible sadness. Tears rushed from her eyes. They were attacking her hypothalamus, sending her on an emotional roller coaster to distract and weaken her, though it clearly had an effect on the telempath as well. She withdrew, unable to deal with Emma's emotions. Her attackers were expending more energy than she was protecting herself, which gave her faith she could hold out mentally as long as she held out physically.

In defending her mind, Emma's major trenches were set up around her hippocampus. If they accessed this part of her brain, they would be given a roadmap to every memory she had and so, at any approach, she reached out, projecting her power and triggering the subdermal governor. The shock it sent through her body and mind kicked out all of her invaders. Unfortunately, it had an extremely debilitating effect on Emma as well and she only used the tactic when she had no other option to protect herself. Afterward, they would come at her again, but she had time to arrange her defenses anew.

A full day went by and then another. Emma was only allowed a sparse amount of water and was not allowed to sleep. It was only a matter of time before she started making mistakes: the image of the flight controls heading into Sanctuary one day; Adam talking about his childhood and how it inspired him in choosing a location for his base of operations; simple things like looking out the window of the Helix and seeing landmarks such as buildings and lakes; walking out of their hideout for some fresh air and natural sunlight. All of these snippets of information were recorded.

After an interminable time, Charles Marlowe entered the interrogation room and walked around to one side of the center table. Suddenly all of the noise in Emma's mind stopped and she was alone in her skull. "I understand you have something for me, Michael," he said to one of the Psionics in the room. Apparently he was the leader of the probing, but all of the faces of the Links who had been attacking her blended together and Emma could not differentiate between them anymore.

"We have a location, Mr. Marlowe," he said.

"She doesn't look broken." Marlowe was skeptical. "She's staring right at me." Emma would have killed him that instant if she were free and if he could be killed.

"We haven't yet broken her. Her defenses are still up, but they've weakened. We've acquired some information and by cross checking the pieces against one another, we have zeroed in on a specific location. It appears that their Sanctuary is dug into solid rock." He handed Marlowe the satellite photographs they had obtained of the location.

"Does this look familiar to you," Marlowe said, throwing down the photographs on the table in front of Emma. Her shoulders noticeably slumped and he thought he saw some of the fire go out of her blue eyes. He considered a moment and then said, "Take her to the infirmary. If it's the wrong location, we can always start this up again."

Adam was shocked when he saw Emma escorted into the infirmary. He had received advance word in the lab that she would be coming down there. Although her appearance filled him with guilt that this was his fault, she did not appear to be permanently harmed in any obvious way. He rushed to her side, though quick movement still made his bandaged head ache. "Emma."

"I'm sorry, Adam," was the first thing she said. "They know where Sanctuary is." She was nearly in tears. Adam helped her up onto a hospital bed and immediately started an intravenous feeding tube.

"No one else could have held out this long," he said to comfort her. Adam ran a scan of her blood and found that she was on the brink of ketoacidosis.

"A lot of good it did," she said, her voice very weak. "I should have just told them everything the first day."

"Maybe, but you didn't know that then. The rest of us failed to come to your rescue." Adam wasn't sure if Emma had heard his answer, as she was fast asleep.


	13. Unbroken Chapter 13

Chapter 13

When Adam returned to the cell where Mutant X was being held, he found Jesse, Shalimar and Brennan all lying facedown on the floor. He briefly examined each in turn, checking for pulse and breath. All three were alive and well, but unconscious. He noticed that their subdermal governors had been modified. Apparently his attempt at hiding the deactivation was insufficient or perhaps they had known about it all along and waited until now to take action. What the Strand had done was disturbing. Adam closely examined the back of Brennan's neck and discovered that the modification to the governor included an explosive cap and a projectile designed to fire down into the wearer's brainstem.

Brennan began to stir. "Brennan, how are you? Are you all right? What happened?" Adam asked him.

"Oh, man. I don't know," he said. "We were just talking and pacing and exercising like every day and then…I don't know." He struggled to his hands and knees and then managed to kneel, still shaking cobwebs out of his head. "They put a covering over the grates in the ceiling, I think. I remember seeing gas coming into the room."

"Maybe we missed our chance. We should have tried to escape." Adam shook his head in dismay. Every calculation he made seemed to go wrong. "We were too late for Emma and now we're too late to escape."

"For Emma? What do you mean?" Brennan asked. "Is she okay?"

"What happened to Emma?" It was Shalimar's voice. She and Jesse were beginning to awaken as well.

"She'll recover," Adam said. "She's asleep in the infirmary with an IV in her arm."

"She betrayed us, didn't she," Brennan accused.

"Brennan, don't say that," Jesse said, coming to her defense. "How long has it been? Like three weeks? Could you have done better?"

"Yeah, I could have."

"No you couldn't have, Brennan," Adam said. "They used a technique that is very effective on new New Mutants. Ketosis." This clearly meant nothing to him and so Adam began to explain. "Your brains are much more dependent on glucose as an energy source than the brains of normal humans are. For Psionics, the difference is even more pronounced." He explained further. "Glucose is a six-carbon molecule that is first broken down into a three-carbon pyruvate, which enters the mitochondrion, and is converted by pyruvate dehydrogenase enzyme to acetyl coenzyme A, which goes into the tricarboxylic acid cycle, which is the main energy-generating chemical dynamo common to all organisms that depend on oxygen. In ketosis, however, the ketones enter the mitochondrion directly, where b-hydroxybutyrate is converted to acetoacetate, then acetoacetyl coenzyme A, which is converted to acetyl coenzyme A. This alternate transfer method is not wholly effective for New Mutants, whose brains cannot fully adapt to the use of ketones for energy."

Brennan looked at Adam, shook his head and said, "What?" Neither Jesse nor Shalimar were able to follow Adam's explanation either. He might as well have said it in Japanese.

Adam sat down on the hard floor with his arms resting on his bent knees. "Basically, the body can get energy in two ways, from sugar and from fat. When you eat normally, your body uses sugar or glucose. Many fad diets reduce or eliminate sugar from the diet so that the body will be forced to burn fat instead. When the body is burning fat, not sugar, it is called ketosis."

"I'm with you so far," Brennan said.

"New Mutants have much higher metabolisms than normal humans and burn far more calories. Therefore, they must eat more just to maintain their weight and energy levels. Obese mutants are rare for this reason. If you see an obese mutant, it invariably indicates a problem with their mutation. This high metabolism becomes a problem in situations where there is a lack of nutritional intake. For example, you would starve twice as fast as I would."

"You're saying they starved Emma?" Shalimar asked.

"Yes. She's lost about a third of her body weight."

"Oh my god," Shalimar gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Most of the body operates well once it has gone into starvation mode and begun using ketones for energy transport rather than glucose. However, some glucose is needed because parts of the brain, retina, kidney and red blood cells depend exclusively on it for energy. Another part of the brain that needs glucose is the part that regulates your New Mutant abilities. The added requirement is least in Ferals and most in Psionics, but significant in all mutants." Adam paused to let them consider the implications. "Still, none of us would have lasted a day under interrogation by Psionics, even without being weakened with starvation."

"Will she be okay?" Jesse asked.

"Yes. The other side of the coin is that she should make a full recovery and much quicker than a non-mutant."

Adam returned to the infirmary to check on Emma. She didn't want to talk much about her ordeal, but was cooperative in doing what was necessary to recover from it. He gave the infirmary personnel instructions concerning continued intravenous feeding as well as normal feeding, beginning with vitamin enriched soup broth. He then returned to the lab and his work on Julia Lechner.

The number of Links on guard duty had doubled in the time since Julia had temporarily escaped her bonds. Adam only had to touch the back of his head to remind himself that he was working on borrowed time. The incident had also revealed to him an intriguing new path of research, which was related to Lechner, but also might serve his personal needs.

Adam used the holographic bio-emulator to look virtually at his subject's DNA and how it had changed since the incident of a few days before. Julia now showed the characteristics of multiple types of mutations in the Elemental classification. The subdermal governor she had worn was unable to prevent the projection of these multiple abilities. He designed a new governor that he hoped would prevent her from having another episode, but there was no way to be sure. With this safety measure in place, he continued his search for a cure.

Looking at the quickly mutating cells was not getting Adam anywhere, so he began concentrating on the more stable ones. Though not as unstable, they were still changing at an uncomfortable pace. He changed the view on the emulator to show a rapidly mutating cell next to a slower mutating cell and then put these up against Julia's original DNA from her first treatments at Genomex. It occurred to him then that it might be useful to compare blood samples of Julia then versus Julia now. He felt he must be missing some fundamental change that would key him in to how this was happening and why.

As soon as he saw the lab results for the blood comparison, Adam nearly called out, "Eureka", but he knew it was better not to tip his hand and tried to make it look like nothing had changed. The New Mutant center of the brain was overproducing a protein that was acting as a catalyst for mutation. A detailed analysis of the blood led him to find that another protein that was responsible for regulating the production of the first enzyme was missing. Theoretically, injecting Julia Lechner with the second protein would neutralize the catalyst and over time healthy cells would replace the ones that were mutating out of control. When he ran a test in the emulator it appeared that the over-mutated cells began repairing themselves in the presence of the missing protein. Adam was near certain that he had indeed found a cure.

Closer examination also showed several other protein complexes that Adam had never seen before. The enzymes that appeared to have caused Lechner's out-of-control mutation were neutralized by the introduction of the control protein, but these protein complexes seemed unaffected and persisted, though no new ones were created. Adam thought they might be connected with the other manifestations of Lechner's powers. With the advanced Fasergen equipment at his disposal, he was able to filter them from Julia's blood.


	14. Unbroken Chapter 14

Chapter 14

While she recovered, Adam caught Emma up on what she missed while locked in her concrete box. He told her about his inability to control Julia Lechner's rapidly mutating powers as evidence by the bandage on his head. For the moment, heavy doses of drugs and reduced body temperature were being used to slow her deterioration.

Emma spent the next couple of days on bed rest in the infirmary. She was fed all that she could hold down until her contracted belly was full. She was constantly tired and nauseous, but still felt much better, at least physically. Whenever Adam entered the room, she was glad to see him.

"How's my other patient today?" he asked.

"I'm feeling much better, much stronger," she said. Adam stood next to her and put his hand on her right shoulder. She jumped at the pinch as he injected her with something and then hid the needle.

"I'm glad to hear it. I think maybe today is the day our team should be reunited." Adam's smile was strange as he said this and Emma could barely resist the urge to rub the shoulder where he had injected her. What had he done?

A guard escorted them to the solid steel door that was the main way in and out of the cell where Mutant X was being held. Emma followed Adam as he entered the doorway, which was closed and sealed behind her.

Shalimar and Jesse were playing cards on the floor in the center of the dismal concrete room. Emma pressed her palms together, holding her hands to her face with her thumbs under her chin and felt tears come to her eyes. She had never thought to see their faces again. Brennan was sitting against a large mirrored wall on the left side of the room.

Shalimar dropped her cards and rushed to Emma, hugging her thin form. Emma could hear that her emotion had taken hold of her and she was crying. The shocked faces of the people she loved were enough to communicate to her how far gone she must still look. Even after a few days of eating as much as she could, she was still less than a hundred pounds. Shalimar held Emma by both of her arms, conscious of how thin they had become and looked into her eyes. Both were too choked up to say a word. She pushed some of Emma's hair away from her face.

Finally, Shalimar was able to speak. "We will get them for this," she said. "I swear it."

Emma didn't know what to say or do. In her mind, she had betrayed them and their cause. How would they react? "Marlowe is probably at Sanctuary right now," she said. She looked right into Brennan's eyes as she said it, knowing he would blame her the most, then at the other members of the group.

"Emma," Adam said, "it's all right." He came to where she was standing and put a hand on her frail shoulder.

"The important thing is that you are back here with us," Shalimar told her with a smile through her tears. "We love you and we are sure you did more than you probably should have." Emma smiled slightly. Shalimar didn't hate her and neither did Adam. Jesse looked concerned, but she couldn't read Brennan.

Brennan locked eyes with her. "Traitor," he said. The other three team members looked sharply at him, but he continued before they could speak up. "That's what I thought when Adam told me that you had revealed the location of our headquarters. I just have to open my eyes and look at you to see what you suffered through. Can you ever forgive me?"

He was clearly sincere and remorseful. "I forgive you, Brennan," she told him, smiling. He returned her smile and it was suddenly like old times between the five of them again.

"Touching," said a voice as the mirrored wall of the cell cleared to reveal Charles Marlowe and a man Emma recognized to be Michael, the Psionic who had headed up her interrogation. "Unfortunately, Ms. DeLauro will have to be put back in her box."

"You can't do that to her again," Shalimar said.

"Yes, I can." He turned to the mutant at his side and suddenly Shalimar fell to the ground choking. "Enough," Marlowe said and the Feral could breathe again.

"You couldn't find everything you needed at Sanctuary?" Adam asked him.

"We thoroughly examined the location extracted from your esper, but we found nothing there." Marlowe turned to the man next to him who seemed very surprised.

"That's impossible. We crosschecked every piece of information we got from the subject. They all matched. They all identified the same target." Michael Andrews was clearly afraid. He had not been on the team sent to the supposed Sanctuary site and had not been aware of their failure to find what they were looking for.

"It seems Ms. DeLauro deceived all of us, including Mr. Andrews here."

Emma's concerned expression changed to a sly grin. "Maybe your people did not look carefully enough," she suggested.

"The site given to us by Mr. Andrews was pockmarked with old mine shafts and natural caverns. We searched day and night. I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is nothing to find. No significant structure, no computers, no power source, nothing."

Brennan looked at Emma. "Wait," he said. "So they didn't find Sanctuary?" Emma shook her head and grinned. He didn't understand why Emma had seemed so distraught before over revealing their secrets, but then he solved it. "You had to fool yourself to fool them." He smiled back at her never having respected her abilities more.

"But you won't fool us twice, not even the gullible Mr. Andrews, who, by the way, has been demoted." Marlowe pulled a chair from behind him and sat down. "You will break eventually. Why not save yourself and your friends some trouble and tell me what I want to know now."

Emma looked at Adam. She knew he was up to something. She could feel his subdued confidence. Whatever he had planned, Brennan, Shalimar and Jesse were not in on it yet. They were all scared and concerned. There was even a tinge of despair that had grown during their weeks of confinement and inactivity. She idly touched the back of her neck. The subdermal governor was still there, but she was not just interpreting these emotions from her friends as anyone could from body language and facial expression, she was using her powers.

"Why should I support your cause?" she asked, stalling for time. What had Adam done to her? She moaned a little in pain and clutched her head. Her brain felt like it was swelling to twice the size of her skull.

"I could send you mutant after mutant with stories of abuse, abandonment and exploitation at the hands of Normals, but I'm sure you have heard enough of these stories as a member of Adam's little gang. My goal is simply to prevent any more New Mutants from having these stories to tell. In a world where mutants are leaders, respected and feared, no parent would abandon or abuse a mutant child. None of use would ever be exploited by Normals as Adam exploits you."

"I've heard various crackpots say these things before," she said, massaging her temples. She realized that she didn't need to listen to his words. She could see them as they formed in his brain. "Ultimately, you just want to exploit me and all of us the way you do these people and poor Julia Lechner."

"It takes money to fund a revolution," Marlowe responded. "Fasergen is profitable, but those profits are traceable and insufficient. A stealth ship like the one that shot down you plane is difficult to explain on a list of legitimate company expenditures. Julia was a willing participant in our endeavor and will be again, thanks to Adam. Of course, if we lived in an open society, where New Mutants were accepted, she could have been given the best treatment immediately. Some good people died when her powers went out of control, because our kind are afraid to reveal themselves. We don't have the same resources available to us that a normal person has. We can't seek out the best medical care, because the best doctors don't even know we exist. Doesn't it make you want to change things?"

"Adam is trying to change things," she said.

"No, he's not," Marlowe corrected her. "He's trying to keep things the same. He wants us to hide, to be embarrassed by what we are. He is doing nothing but working to reinforce the fears of those who would destroy us." Emma made no response. "Would any Normal trust you to stay out their head without a subdermal governor?" Some of his words were sincere, but there was something else that he was not bringing forward. Emma could feel a deeper motivation. She tried to reach for more information, but she was still in pain. It was all she could do to appear somewhat composed on the outside.

_What did you do to me, Adam!_

_Emma?_ Adam had heard the thought in his head.

_You can hear me?_ Emma transmitted.

_Yes,_ Adam responded.

_I'm a telempath, not a telepath. What did you do?_


	15. Unbroken Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Marlowe assumed Emma was considering his words and thought to see doubt on the faces of the other three New Mutants. Perhaps he could turn them to his cause or at least set them against Adam. "What is the goal of Mutant X? What does Adam have you working toward?" he asked.

Emma heard Marlowe's words with her ears and her mind. The more pressing issue, however, was what was happening to her. _What did you do to me, Adam!_

_I analyzed the data from Julia Lechner and prepared an injection to bypass your subdermal governor._

_You didn't ask me. I didn't agree to this! _Emma's words were the equivalent of a shout in Adam's mind and he winced visibly. Emma had to be careful to hide their interaction from the Psionic who was a few feet away from them on the other side of the glass.

_I had no choice. We have to escape and this is our only hope. We are constantly under surveillance. I couldn't consult you. Besides, it worked. You can bypass the subdermal governor. _Adam was sincere in his belief that he had done the right thing, but that didn't make it so.

_I can do more than just that! _

_Lechner displayed other Elemental abilities as well as the ability to bypass the basic governor. Apparently it is having the same effect on your Psionic abilities. _Adam had expected this result and had actually hoped for it.

_Will I go out of control like her?_ He didn't have to think the answer. She could read if from his mind. He didn't know. Emma had received a megadose of protein complexes he had not tested in isolation from the enzymes and proteins that were symptomatic of Lechner's condition. Adam believed the effect would eventually wear off and that she would return to normal, but it was more instinct than science.

Jesse stepped forward, seeing Emma distracted and answered Marlowe's question about the activities of Mutant X. "We react to any threat and defend those who can't defend themselves against people like you."

"And you do that in secrecy?" Marlowe asked him.

"Yes," Jesse said.

"Why?" he pressed.

"Because the people we are trying to help might not let us if they knew about our powers. If we are helping New Mutants, we have to maintain secrecy to prevent any misunderstandings with the public, which could lead to a backlash that might hurt all of us," Jesse explained.

_What are you planning, Emma? _Adam thought. _You need to tell me, so I can help._

The pain in Emma's head was starting to dissipate and she was feeling somewhat stronger. _Like you told me before you injected me? _Emma told him nothing.

Marlowe said, "Couldn't you do more good in the world if everyone knew about your powers and accepted them? They could seek the help of the one most able to provide it. You could act openly and freely and be credited for the good things you do. No one could lie under oath. Criminals would be hunted down quickly. The world would be a better and safer place for everyone."

"With you in charge?" Brennan asked in a voice that was more accusation.

"Someone has to be in charge. If I am not fair and equitable, my leadership will be challenged and a new leader will be chosen. Gabriel Ashlocke led through fear because he was the most powerful mutant. I am not. I've formed a consensus. Those who follow me do so freely and willingly." It was clear to Emma that he was hiding something, but her swelling powers were difficult to focus. Marlowe had half-convinced himself of the propaganda he was spewing, but his ultimate goal was hidden. She had to probe deeper.

"And if the Normals don't follow you?" Emma asked, though she could answer this herself. They would have no choice, but she wondered if he would actually say it.

"A rule of law must be established in any society or else anarchy reigns. Our powers are not essentially different from the tanks and guns used by those currently in power. They put us at an advantage and need only be used as a last resort to keep the peace."

"Our powers can also be used to benefit all people," Marlowe continued. "The Normals who lead us now tend to be well-educated, because a well-educated person tends to make better decisions and have fewer prejudices than an ignorant person. Education is an advantage, a tool." Marlowe stood up from the chair and looked at them each in turn. "Just think about the tools you have. A judge can be lied to, despite his experience and education, but not Ms. DeLauro. Ms. Fox can track a criminal or lost child better than any K-9 unit. I can't pretend to know the applications in science and medicine that Mr. Mulwray's abilities could be put to. Mr. Kilmartin can walk through walls and stop a speeding bullet. He is a miracle being wasted. Think of all the mutants you have encountered and imagine how their gifts could be applied to the world around us. It is insane to waste those gifts and hide them, just as it would be insane to keep brilliant scientists from research centers."

"You don't believe a word you are saying," Adam accused. "I don't claim to understand your resurrection, but the Charles Marlowe I knew was a mercenary with a death wish who had long ago stopped caring about anyone. I don't think you've changed. This charade is just a means to some end we have not yet discovered."

"Did you ever consider that coming so close to my final end has led me to embrace life and especially to embrace my mutation, which has allowed me to live?" Marlowe walked to the end of the room on the other side of the glass and turned to Adam when he was directly across from him. "Gabriel Ashlocke showed us the way, but he was mortal. I am not. I do not seek wealth and power in this society. That is not my goal. My goal is a new society where mutants are free to use their powers without fear of reprisal from the weak, ignorant masses." Emma could sense half-truths in his words. He did seek a new society, but it wasn't Ashlocke's. He didn't seek wealth and power in the traditional sense, but he did seek some kind of power. Marlowe wanted dominion over everyone, normal and mutant alike, but Emma could not quite grasp exactly what that meant to him. She was distracted from her examination by his next questions. "While we are at it, what are your goals, Adam? What is ultimate success for Mutant X? How will you even know if you've won?"

_What are you waiting for, Emma? _Adam thought. _We should act now._

_I'd like to hear your answers to his questions, _she projected in response.

Marlowe gestured to the Psionic who had remained at his side and the two stepped to the door. "Try thinking a while about how productive another trip to the box will be, Emma DeLauro. I'll give you some time, because I do not believe Adam has any answers to rival mine. The world has changed. New Mutants have created a paradigm shift and the old rules of the normal world no longer apply. Just because Adam Kane can't accept the new reality, doesn't mean you must blindly follow him to your doom." Charles Marlowe left the adjoining room and the glass wall returned to its mirror state, reflecting four people waiting for the response of Adam Kane.


	16. Unbroken Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Emma, help me to deactivate these subdermal governors," Adam said. He took a step toward Shalimar who backed away from him.

"Tell us, Adam. Or do I have to tear the answers out of your brain," Emma said, approaching him threateningly.

Adam looked at them each in turn and said, "We don't really have time for this now," but he saw that they were intransigent in their need to hear his answer. "What are my goals? Why did I create Mutant X and the Mutant Underground?" He sighed. "I was reckless when I was young. I was so convinced of my brilliance and the rightness of my actions that I cut corners." Adam lowered himself to the ground and sat on the floor. "I wanted to help people and make the world a better place. Young and idealistic, I know. The mutations created by my work were unexpected. As you are well aware, they were reduced between the creation of Gabriel Ashlocke and the New Mutants such as yourselves, but the side effects of the genetic manipulations persisted no matter what I and my fellow researchers did. Moleculars, Ferals, Psionics, Elementals, four different paths of research, four different roads to failure, four legacies of ruined lives."

"You feel responsible for the work you did at Genomex. We know that," Shalimar said. "We understand your 'why', but we're a little fuzzy still on how you plan to fix things."

_And you are still hiding some of the 'why', _Emma thought at him. Adam looked sharply at her.

"I'm getting to that. Eckhart and Breedlove played their parts, but mostly, all of the innovation was mine. They used my techniques and theories not only to save lives, but also to create improved humans. When I found out what they were doing it was I who called an end to it. I stayed on for a time to try and right the wrongs done with my work, but I would not risk creating any more New Mutants. There was a falling out. I wiped Genomex's records and left with a database of every mutant we had created. My plan was simply to dedicate the rest of my life to helping them in any way I could. I grant you, it wasn't much of a plan. It was more penance."

"In other words, you don't have a plan, do you?" Brennan said. "You don't have an endgame."

"No, Brennan, no. There is an endgame. The mutations will not last more than three or four generations. In most cases, only two, and in some, powers will not be passed on to children at all. It is why Ashlocke's plan, and now Marlowe's, was ultimately doomed to failure. Eventually, New Mutants will dwindle away and become a thing of the past. The Mutant Underground is a way for the Children of Genomex to live lives as normal as possible and have a chance for families and children of their own."

The revelation was shocking to them all. "So, New Mutants are all doomed," Jesse said.

"No, you aren't doomed. You will live your life as will your children and grandchildren," Adam said, "but ultimately, a generation will come that will not have your powers. There are not great numbers of you now and those numbers will only decrease. No one has all of the pieces to create more mutants with even a semblance of stability."

"Do you think Marlowe knows this?" Shalimar asked.

"Probably. If not, I'm sure we're being monitored and he knows now. I doubt it matters to him. He is using the Strand as a ready-made force for whatever his true objective is. How can you guess at the motivations of someone who is immortal and has a death wish? Even when he was young, his mental state was unstable. Since then, he has lost his wife and his child and has risen from the dead. Who can know what he's thinking?"

_I can,_ Emma thought to Adam. _As for your own motivations and goals, you are telling the truth as far as it goes, but there are some omissions. You think you are protecting us by not telling us everything, but I know where to look if your secrets ever threaten this team. Be careful what you hide, because I will not hesitate to invade your mind if I have cause to do so._

_You may find it more difficult than you expect. However, I do not know anything more about Charles Marlowe, _Adam thought for Emma to read. _I was as surprised as anyone to find him alive. _

"But then how do we defeat Marlowe?" Jesse asked. "If he can't be killed, how can he be stopped?"

"He can be killed," Adam said. "He was killed. Eckhart disintegrated his remains, but he must have missed something. It might only take one cell for Marlowe to regenerate."

"How could he grow back from one cell? Do new Marlowes grow every time he gives a blood sample?" Brennan asked, mocking the sense of Adam's statement.

"Something must trigger the regeneration. There has to be some sort of communication between all of his New Mutant cells, no matter their distance from one another. Such an intercellular communication is probably a critical part of his ability to instantly and instinctively regenerate. The largest grouping of cells, in most cases, his body, is dominant and repairs itself, while instructing any detached cells not to. If a cell loses all contact with any larger biomass, it knows it is the last remaining piece of life and begins the process of restoring the whole."

"How is that even possible?" Jesse asked.

"There's so much about mutations that we don't know. So much that defies all of the laws of physics, chemistry and biology that we thought we knew. Where does Brennan's electricity come from? All bodies generate some, but only the merest fraction of what he is able to produce. How can you instantaneously change your body density? What makes a Feral's eyes glow? How can a Psionic project his own thoughts into someone else's mind? Science has no good explanation for any of this. Are New Mutants able to instinctually tap into an intersecting universe or draw power from dimensions of space not currently known to us? Maybe it has something to do with a higher power or is evidence that there is an intelligent design to our existence. Even I don't know why these powers work, but obviously they do. Somehow the genetic manipulations I performed tapped into these forces and created you—created mutants who are able to draw on this energy and bend the reality we had all taken for granted in specific ways at their will."

"Usually," Brennan said with a smirk, remembering misfires in his past. "Basically, to stop Marlowe, we must be sure to destroy every last cell."

"Yes," Adam said, "if you mean to kill."

"I think it is the preferred option," Emma said. "First, we have to get out of this prison." She walked over to Shalimar and pulled her hair to the side, revealing the modified subdermal governor with its explosive charge poised to send a slug into her brainstem.

The metal of the governor began scintillating. "Careful, Emma," Adam warned.

Emma stood at Shalimar's side. Her eyes were sparking like the governor. There was an explosion, but instead of the slug launching into Shalimar's neck, it stayed in place and the device backfired, sending the bullet casing and the back of the short barrel across the room to ricochet against the concrete wall. "Adam, it's disarmed. You do the rest."

She moved toward Brennan, who put up his hands and stepped back. "Hold on, what was that?" he asked.

"I just held the slug in place and triggered the explosive charge in the cap," Emma said.

"You're a telempath. You can't do that. I don't even think a telekinetic could do that," he said.

"Right now, Emma is supercharged, to put it simply. Unfortunately, I don't know how long it will last, so we have to move now," Adam told them. Emma quickly detonated the explosive devices in Brennan and Jesse's governors and Adam removed the remainder of the device. He also removed Emma's in case it began having an effect on her again. Alarms sounded and gas began pouring into their cell. Up above, the covers for the steel grating where slammed shut.

"Finally, it's time to get out of here," Jesse said. He went impervious and smashed through the bulletproof glass wall of their cell. It fractured and cracked, parts shattering, but most coming down in a wrinkled sheet, which Jesse stamped on and pulled out of the way.

Brennan let loose parallel streams of electricity at the two Links who had been waiting in the observation room. He then looked at Jesse. "You could've just phased us through," he said.

"Probably, but I've wanted to do that for weeks," Jesse responded.

Emma was choking a little. "Did you also want the gas to get into our lungs instead of staying in the cell?" she asked sarcastically.

"I'm sorry," Jesse said, a little embarrassed by his rashness. The weeks of inactivity had made him reckless. Adam rushed to the controls and turned off the gas before a potent amount had issued forth, but nevertheless, enough had flooded from the cell and into the observation room that they were forced to cover their mouths and noses with cloth and began feeling slightly groggy.

"We have to move," Adam shouted over the alarms and coughing, holding the collar of his shirt over his nose and mouth. He picked up a stun stick from one of the Links Brennan had taken out and led the way to the only door leading from the room.

Outside, the five members of Mutant X found themselves at a three-way intersection of wide corridors. A large group of Links, perhaps numbering twenty, was approaching from the widest corridor, wide enough for ten people to stand abreast, which was directly ahead of them. The hallways to the right and left were about two-thirds the size with another ten links in each.

"Surrender," called out an incredible bear of a man whose eyes glowed yellow as he spoke. Jesse and Emma recognized him from the ambush a few weeks earlier. The Links held their positions about ten yards from the escaped prisoners, waiting for an answer to their call for capitulation.

Adam looked to his left. Shalimar's eyes answered with their own glow and she let out a low growl, while Brennan passed one hand over the other, igniting fierce electric fires in both hands. Adam looked to his right. Jesse's skin turned into an impervious red-orange shell and a bright ball of pulsating white light emanated from Emma's forehead, hovering just above her eyes.

With a wry grin for the Strand Feral, Adam said simply: "No."


	17. Unbroken Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Uh, Adam," Brennan said, looking at overwhelming numbers facing them, "just how supercharged did you say Emma was?"

"Emma?" Adam asked. She was the one and only ace up his sleeve.

The young redhead stepped forward from the group. A white light shined forth from her pupils, which expanded so that the blue of the irises went all white, glowing bright enough to make the Links looking at her squint. The pulsating ball of Psionic energy hovering in front of her forehead swelled and split into two. Two became four, then eight, sixteen and thirty-two. They began to swell again, preparing for another split, but suddenly, Emma pressed her hands to her temples and fell to one knee, squeezing her eyes closed. The spheres of energy dimmed and nearly went out, prompting the opposing mutants to step forward.

Still clutching her head, Emma looked up sharply, the white fire still in her eyes and the thirty-two balls of light regained their brilliance. Each with its own target, they shot toward the Fasergen mutants in front of her, trailing tails back to Emma, which allowed her to control them. Nineteen bodies fell to the floor and only the enormous lead Feral remained standing. Two of the multitude of Psionic blasts turned in their paths and brought him down as well. Emma looked to her right and the remaining energy spheres followed her eyes, their long comet tails tracing a curved path down the intersecting hallway. Ten more Links went down before they could close the distance to the Mutant X team.

The light went out from Emma's eyes and she collapsed on the floor, but there was no time for anyone to come to her aid. Seeing the Psionic fall, the ten Links who had started to retreat down the hallway to the left of Mutant X, saw the opportunity to attack.

Brennan didn't know the abilities of the mutants coming at him, so he was forced to simply target the closest. A tesla coil ripped through the air down the corridor, throwing a tall blond woman back into the mutants behind her. Two large Links, nearly identical with dark hair and swarthy complexions grabbed Brennan by both arms and forced him back against the corridor wall. He lifted his legs up, supported by their holds on his arms and brought his feet down on their knees. The brothers' grips loosened as they fell into Brennan and he grabbed them by their shoulders, accelerating their falls into each other and knocking their heads together.

"That's a good start," Jesse said. He massed and stepped in between two Links, his arms out, chopping them both down at the neck. They fell hard to the floor, skulls hitting first and knocking them unconscious. Suddenly Jesse screamed in pain as his entire body erupted in flame. He flailed about in panic as a slim, brunette female kicked him in the midriff. Jesse doubled over and she brought down her hands clenched together on the back of his head, knocking him to the floor. The mental belief that he was on fire faded and her grabbed the ankles of the Psionic, lifting her off of the ground and throwing her back to land several feet away.

Shalimar ran straight ahead into the crowd. She was a whirling dervish, her attack a fierce dance of kicks and punches. Four mutants boxed Shalimar in. She struck the first, a tall female, in the face with her right fist, while simultaneously kicking back into the chest of an Asian man coming in behind her. Both staggered back, but Shalimar was left exposed to her two other assailants, both male, one black, one white. The tall African American on her left grabbed her left shoulder and she felt that entire side of her body turn numb. She nearly lost her footing, but she realized her limbs still obeyed her commands. She just couldn't feel them. Controlling her left arm by sight, she landed a roundhouse punch in the anesthetizing mutant's jaw, sending him twisting to the ground. The Caucasian male took advantage of the situation and grabbed Shalimar in a vise-like grip with his arm around her neck, choking her. His strength was incredible and she could not wriggle free.

Adam came to Shalimar's aid, pressing the Taser-stick he had collected from the observation room into the back of the neck of the mutant who was holding her in a strangle hold. The purple arc of electricity scattered the nerve impulses of the Link, who fell heavily to the ground, releasing Shalimar, who dropped to her knees, gasping for breath. Adam jumped back as a trail of electric fury passed by him, knocking out the Asian man Shalimar had kicked to the ground a few moments before, who had just regained his feet. The black anesthetic mutant grabbed Adam on both shoulders and he fell to the ground, his Taser-stick falling from his numb hands.

Jesse was there in an instant to help. When the Link's numbing hands reached for him, he phased. Unaffected, Jesse walked through the mutant, materializing behind him, turning and striking down on either side of his neck with two clenched fists. He then kicked the fallen foe in the back of the head, sending him to the ground unconscious.

Brennan was amazed to see the Asian link he had zapped still standing. He could have sworn the man had fallen and should still be down. Brennan charged the man head-on, throwing punches, which were deftly deflected. "What are you doing?" the Link said in surprise. Brennan assumed a boxer's stance, leading with the left and following with the right as the other mutant backed away from him, defending the punches, but not attacking. The Mutant X Elemental turned sideways to kick the Fasergen mutant in the gut, but his opponent anticipated the move and grabbed his leg, twisting it and dropping Brennan to the ground. "Stop it, Brennan, it's me, Jesse," the Asian man said. The man's features inexplicably altered to the blond, Caucasian face of Jesse Kilmartin. They both looked at each other and then at the brunette Psionic who turned to run, but a flood of electricity caught her, throwing her twenty feet.

At the same time, Shalimar was locked in a battle with the first woman she had punched, but now her opponent was invisible. It wasn't stealth or teleportation; this mutant was truly invisible with no telltale distortion indicating a simpler manipulation of light. Shalimar was forced to fight with her other senses: she could smell the female pheromones, feel the body heat and slight movements of air, and hear the footsteps and rustling of fabric. A left hook at empty space struck its target. She stepped to her right and defended a kick with her right forearm. Ducking the woman's punch, she threw herself sideways, trying to shoulder-tackle the Link. The invisible woman stepped aside and Shalimar staggered, nearly falling. She had lost track of the target and had only a second to react to the footsteps behind her. Shal ran in the direction she was facing, right at the wall. Her eyes went yellow and she scrambled up, squatting against the wall, holding herself by grasping a vent grate, glad feeling had returned to her entire body. Her Feral energies now recharged, she was able to see the thermal image of the invisible Link and pounced. The mutant was not prepared for the deadly accuracy of Shalimar's leap. She was driven hard down to the ground and did not get up.

Adam slowly rose to his feet, a little wobbly in the knees. He shook his arms and legs, trying to accelerate the return of sensation. Surveying the fallen bodies everywhere, he said, "I have to give it to you. You guys do great work."

"You got one yourself," Shalimar said, panting slightly from the exertion.

"By luck." He turned from them and went to Emma's side. She was still collapsed on the floor in a kneeling position, her head touching the ground and palms firmly pressed to her temples. Adam knelt beside her on one knee and rested his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" Emma screamed and Adam was sent flying through the air, landing amongst the fallen Links.

"Emma, baby," Shalimar said. She knelt next to the young woman, but did not touch her. "Can you stand? Can you walk? We still have to get out of here."

Emma placed her hands on the ground and slowly lifted her head to look at Shalimar. She was a wreck. Her still gaunt face was sweat-covered, with strands of wet red hair falling across it. There was blood welling up and dripping from her eyes. Shalimar drew back slightly at the sight of her.

"We can't leave yet," Emma said. "We haven't killed Charles Marlowe."


	18. Unbroken Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Adam was slowly getting to his feet, now glad that his body was still partially numb from the mutant attack. Shalimar was at Emma's side and told the girl: "We have to stop Marlowe, but I don't know that what he's done quite warrants death. Not that I would weep were it to happen."

"It's not as much what he's done, though I personally want to settle that score, but it's what he is planning to do, which is monstrous," Emma said.

"Do you know what it is? What's he going to do that's so horrible?" Jesse asked.

Emma sighed slightly. "I don't know exactly. I've been in his mind twice and in neither instance was I in a situation where I could read him deeply, but in both cases, there was something sinister there. I sensed a total disregard for human life coupled with a fascination about death. I felt he would kill millions without a second thought. That's why we have to stop him before he sets his plans in motion."

"First of all, Emma, we're not in the business of murder," Adam said, having retraced the distance Emma had thrown him. "Second, he's indestructible. He can't be killed, even if that was the proper course of action. There's no way to account for his every last cell on this planet. Third…."

"Adam," Emma interrupted him, "we can't leave here with Charles Marlowe still alive. I'll do it myself if I have to. I will find a way."

"Third," Adam stressed the word heavily to get through to her, "Emma, you don't have it in you to kill."

"I don't? Ask Harvey Lanchester if I can kill," Emma responded. Since the incident, she had never before spoken to the team about the Genomex agent who had been assigned to track down and destroy a disc showing New Mutants using their powers and who had ultimately died at her hand.

"In self-defense, Emma," Shalimar said. "He was trying to kill both of us. He hit you first with a thermal blast and had every intention of boiling your mind."

"But I made him think his powers had backfired and turned back on him. I made him use his own powers to build up enough heat in his brain to destroy it. I didn't even feel remorse over what I had done until days later." Emma's voice sounded distant.

Shalimar squeezed her shoulder. "You did what you had to do, Emma. Don't feel sorry for stopping the man who would have murdered both of us and had already left a trail of bodies in his wake. Believe me, I know that sometimes there is no choice."

"Did you really intend to kill Lanchester, Emma?" Brennan asked.

Emma looked at him severely. "No. I didn't realize the power of what I had put in his mind. He didn't even know his first shot had hit me. Like you," she told Brennan, "having his own powers turned against him was his biggest fear. But, even if I didn't realize it at the time, it was still a kill shot. I meant to stop Lanchester. I meant to incapacitate him. When I saw the self-destructive panic I had created in his mind, I was glad. I did nothing to curtail it and keep him from dying."

"Emma, don't you see that what you are talking about now is different?" Adam squatted near where the two women were kneeling on the ground. "This would be cold-blooded, premeditated murder. Marlowe hurt you, but I don't think he intended to kill you or me or any of us. We have accomplished our mission here. We found out what Fasergen is about and I stabilized the condition of Julia Lechner. Now, we have to get out of here. Once we are back at Sanctuary we can begin formulating a plan to address this new threat."

A blast of psionic energy leaped from Emma's forehead directed at Adam. At the last moment, it hooked around his head and sped toward a Link who had begun stirring to life. The body fell to the floor again. Adam and Emma's eyes locked as the tail of Psionic energy dissipated between them. Adam looked away first. The warning shot had unnerved him and he was very worried about the young woman. He sensed there was danger in provoking Emma in her current state.

Emma stood up, as did Shalimar. "You know best, Adam," Emma said. "We still need to stop Marlowe and we shouldn't leave here until we find out what his plans are."

"We can find that out from Sanctuary. The important thing now is for us all to get to safety. I'll contact my sources and we can begin looking into exactly what Fasergen has been created for."

"If I come across Charles Marlowe before we get back to Sanctuary, I will put an end to him."

"Emma, no. Now is neither the time nor the place." Adam stepped close to the young woman and they locked eyes again, briefly.

"C'mon, Emma, let's get back home," Shalimar said. "Have you looked at yourself? You need food, sleep and a long, hot bath." Emma ignored her.

There was a long moment of silence as the rest of Mutant X picked up on the tension between Adam and the young Psionic. Finally, Emma said, "Lead on, Adam."

"Can you assure me that you won't do anything reckless?" he asked her.

"Of course, Adam. I'll be as responsible as you always are." Emma smiled with her mouth, but not with her eyes. She pictured the Double Helix in her mind and the other planes in the building's hangar. She thought of how the whole team could commandeer one of the aircraft. Maybe it was even possible that the Helix had been completely repaired. Suddenly, Adam had an idea.

"Let's head for the hangar and see if we can find some air transport out of this place." The four mutants followed Adam, who had some idea of the layout of the facility through his time working to help treat Julia Lechner. They picked their way between the fallen bodies of the Links and walked through a maze of hallways. On three occasions, they ran into security doors. Brennan zapped the electronic locks and popped them permanently open. They didn't meet up with anyone as they made their way through the building. There must have been at least a hundred or perhaps many more working at the site and seeing the halls cleared ahead filled them with a feeling of foreboding.

"They're waiting for us," Emma said as they neared their destination.

"What do you mean?" Shalimar asked her.

"Don't worry, Shal, you'll sense them soon enough. The rest of the Links in the building, fifty or so, are massed in the hangar awaiting our arrival."

"Then let's head the other direction," Jesse said. He stopped and took a few steps the other way.

"What are you going to do, Jess, walk out the front door and hail a cab?" Brennan asked him. They all came to a stop in the hallway.

"Seems a hell of a lot more sensible than walking into an ambush," Jesse responded.

"How long did you know, Emma?" Adam asked.

"They've been monitoring us the whole time. As soon as you suggested we seek air transportation, Marlowe sent all available personnel to the hangar. Did you really think we were just going to fly out of here? It's not in Marlowe's best interest to let us get back to Sanctuary and calmly plan his downfall. He has already spent a considerable amount of resources capturing and holding us. We still have information he wants. Even if I didn't want to force a confrontation, he does."

"There must be another way," Brennan said.

"Now you're agreeing with me?" Jesse asked Brennan, who just shrugged in response and looked back toward Adam.

"No," Emma answered for him. "We do this now."

"Emma, you can't trust your powers right now. You collapsed last time and I'm not sure how much more your body can take." Adam reached to grab Emma's shoulders as he spoke to her, but decided better of it and dropped his hands back to his sides. "I told you we have no way of telling how long the boost I gave you will last. You may think you can handle anything right now, but you could overload and die or fizzle out and leave us defenseless against overwhelming numbers."

"We have no choice, Adam," Emma said. "We are not dealing with Ashlocke or Eckhart here. Charles Marlowe is patient and thorough. We have been lucky to delay him so far and that only by the skin of our teeth."

"So we just kill him. That's your answer?" Adam raised his voice, getting angry with her.

"If we can. Kill or contain. This may be our only chance to stop him." Emma started walking toward the hangar again.

"Some chance," Brennan said, "Ten to one odds?"

"Emma!" Adam called after her.

"Do what you want," Emma shouted without looking back.

Adam and then the rest of Mutant X followed the young Psionic somewhat reluctantly. She slowed and waited for them to catch up and they proceeded as a team. Ultimately, they realized, Emma was right. They had escaped from their cell, but were still in the prison. There was no leaving without confronting Marlowe.


	19. Unbroken Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Brennan zapped the inner and outer hangar doors and Mutant X stepped into the huge space from which all of the aircraft had been removed. They walked into the center of the hangar and were encircled by Charles Marlowe and his Links. Emma kept walking straight up to Marlowe, who was unnerved a little by this and took a few steps backwards. Four Links charged at her to halt her advance. They all fell instantly to the ground, gasping for air. Emma stopped a yard short of Marlowe and reached into his mind. His people wanted to make a move, but had been instructed to caution and had heard reports of what Emma did to the first group sent to intercept the escaping prisoners.

"Do they know?" Emma asked Marlowe. He did not respond, but only grinned with one side of his mouth. She released the chokehold she had on the four Links and they slowly recovered and got to their feet.

Adam stepped forward a few paces and came to stand half way between Emma and the rest of Mutant X. "What did you see, Emma?" he asked her.

Emma turned from Marlowe and looked around the circle of his people. "Some know. Some suspect. Most do not realize what a monster you are." She turned back to him. Maria Raven and Julia Lechner bracketed Marlowe. Emma looked at both of them and said to each in turn, "You know and you do too."

Adam walked up to stand at Emma's side. "What is he planning?"

"Why don't you tell all of your people?" Emma said, but it was not a question. She reached into his mind again to compel him.

Marlowe smiled at her. "You did that once already, Ms. DeLauro. My DNA has adapted to that kind of attack. You'll no more be able to bend my mind now than you can bend my body." He stepped close to Emma. "Still, I'll tell everyone my plans. It won't make a difference." Marlowe stepped around the young woman and walked into the center of the hanger. Shalimar hissed at him as he approached her, where she stood with Brennan and Jesse. "But these words," Marlowe said, raising his voice to be heard by all, "are for New Mutants only." Before anyone could react, he drew and automatic pistol, aimed it at Adam, and emptied the clip.

Shalimar had seen the movement and began to close the distance between herself and Marlowe. Brennan raised his electrically charged hands. Jesse began running toward Adam. All were much too late. At a speed of over a thousand feet per second, ten tiny pieces of metal raced toward Adam Kane's chest and head, the slight recoil of the gun causing the trajectories to drift up from his torso to his face.

Inches short of their target, the bullets came to a dead stop and reversed direction. Marlowe staggered back as ten lead slugs caught him in the chest. The blue of Emma's eyes had been replaced by a glowing white light. The corners of her mouth lifted in a macabre smile as the bullets stopped and reversed direction again, striking him in the back. The cluster of bullets split up and danced around the Fasergen leader, weaving in and out of his body from all directions, passing through his arms and legs, his head and body. His gun fell to the ground as a bullet pierced his hand and two impacts in the kneecaps knocked him from his feet. Only seconds passed while Marlowe was shredded by ten pieces of telekinetically charged metal, but to everyone who watched, it seemed to be happening in slow motion.

They were all shocked by the carnage they saw and Adam was the first to recover. "Stop it, Emma!" he shouted. The bullets ripped through Marlowe again, hovered for a second, and then fell to the ground with tiny clinks as they bounced on the cement floor. Emma's eyes turned back to blue. Charles Marlowe was a bloodied mess, but in moments, his wounds healed and he regained his feet.

"Don't do that again," Emma said, inflecting her voice so that Marlowe could hear her. The gun leapt into the air and disappeared in the distance, landing by the outer wall of the hangar. Shalimar, Jesse and Brennan joined Adam and Emma at the edge of the circle of Links, leaving Charles Marlowe alone at the center. They looked at Emma as if seeing her for the first time and were not so sure they liked what they saw. Emma reached into the mind of Maria Raven, Marlowe's closest aide.

The African American woman stepped forward. "Charles hasn't told all of you his plans yet, but I feel it is time everyone should know," she said.

"Stop, Maria. I'll tell them." Marlowe looked at Emma as he said this. He then raised his arms as he addressed his people. "Our ultimate goal has always been to create a world where our powers are not only accepted, but also respected. We seek to take our rightful place as leaders of our genetic inferiors. This is the world Gabriel Ashlocke wanted for us." All of the Links knew this to be the goal of their movement. They nodded their heads in agreement with the stated purpose.

"There are two incontrovertible facts, two major obstacles, that we must overcome in order to obtain our objective." As he spoke he turned to address different groups of his people, meeting the eyes of his most adamant supporters. "First, there are more than six billion so-called 'normal' people on this planet. Some estimates put the number of New Mutants at near a thousand. We are few and our oppressors are many. Second, the general population will never accept our powers. They will stop at nothing to destroy us if they are made aware of our existence. The problem is not us, the problem is them, the Normals." The Links had nearly forgotten about the presence of strangers in their midst. Many had wondered for a long time how they would fulfill Gabriel Ashlocke's dreams. Now, they would know.

"The solution is simple," Marlowe told them. "We need to even the odds. Fasergen scientists have created a virus that should prove fatal to nearly one hundred percent of all normal human beings. It will not, however, affect New Mutants." He let them absorb this information. Few seemed taken aback or disturbed by the idea of such wholesale slaughter. "And there is something else. You may or may not know that our Mutant abilities will not be carried more than a few generations. Many of us will have children and grandchildren who are not New Mutants." Again Marlowe paused to let the ramifications of his statement sink in.

"Now, you may be asking yourselves, what point there is in seizing this world for our kind, if it will simply return to the control of Normals in a few generations. Perhaps, we could go into the lab and create more New Mutants and renew the work of people like Adam Kane, Mason Eckhart and Paul Breedlove." This idea was clearly distasteful to the Links. Most blamed Genomex and its scientists for all of the troubles in their lives. They embraced what they were, but rejected the irresponsible science that had created them.

"There is another option. Ms. De Lauro has given you a little taste of it here today." He gestured toward Emma as he said this. "Immortality." Marlowe turned in a circle where he stood so that he could see all of the reactions of his people. He addressed Adam Kane, facing him. "Adam, you once called me the 'key to the cure', well I still am. I am the key to the cure for death. We have found a way to cause my body to create surpluses of the enzymes that power my rapid healing. I can produce enough doses to keep all New Mutants alive indefinitely." The Links looked at his shredded clothes and unmarked flesh. They believed. "The few humans without mutant abilities who survive the plague will grow up in a world where we are gods. They and their children will live to serve us. It is everything Ashlocke promised us and more. I offer dominion over the Earth and immortality."


	20. Unbroken Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Shalimar turned to Adam and said, "I remember you once told me Marlowe was more dangerous than Eckhart. Now, I believe you."

"What do you and your world offer us?" Marlowe looked to Adam with a smug expression on his face. "Nothing compared to what I offer to all New Mutants, even to your four little servants." He smiled at Emma, Shalimar, Jesse and Brennan. "Join me."

"You mean follow you. Now, let me tell you, all of you, what I offer—what my world offers." Adam's voice echoed through the hangar. "I offer freedom. I offer a world where you can live a normal life with a clear conscience." He addressed the Links as a whole. "Don't you see that if you are reliant on Charles Marlowe for your immortality, you are his slaves for eternity?" He tried to meet all of the eyes arrayed before him. "That's assuming his plan works. What if the virus does kill New Mutants? What if it only kills half of humanity and the rest come to tear you limb from limb? Many of you must have friends and family who would be killed. Could you really live with so much blood on your hands forever?"

The entire time Marlowe had been speaking and now as Adam gave his response, Emma monitored all of the minds of the Strand members. Most interesting were the thoughts of Julia Lechner. Perhaps, now that her mutation was stable, she was reconsidering her actions on Fasergen's behalf. Emma sensed a fury of conflicting thoughts in her skull. There was an old resentment toward Adam and a realization that he had saved her life. She felt a hatred of all those who had made her miserable, because she was different. She also blamed herself for those she had accidentally killed when her powers spun out of control. She never meant to kill, but she had aided and abetted a man who meant to slaughter billions. If she couldn't deal with her current guilt, how could she participate in Marlowe's plans? Julia seemed to be at a point where she might be turned without risking her mind. Emma just needed to push her in the right way. She studied Lechner carefully, trying to find a combination that would not only convert her, but could be applied to more of Marlowe's people as well.

"The blood of Normals is not as thick as our blood. We know it is beneath our consideration." Charles Marlowe approached Mutant X and gestured for his people to fall in behind him. "Adam, though I am grateful to you for assisting with Ms. Lechner, I cannot let you go. You will assist us with our research or be killed. Ms. DeLauro will return to interrogation and if we destroy her mind trying to break her, so be it. Ms. Fox, Mr. Kilmartin and Mr. Mulwray will have an opportunity to join us, or will remain locked up for the rest of their mortal lives."

"Enough," Emma said, a glow once again returning to her eyes. "You haven't attacked us, because you are still not sure if I have command of my expanded powers. Do not think that my failure to act thus far means that I do not have my abilities fully under control. If I so choose, I can kill every living think within a mile radius right now."

"I saw what happened to you the last time you went after a large force," Marlowe said. "I don't believe you can handle it again." Despite his words, what the Psionic had done with the bullets was impressive and she hadn't looked weak then at all.

"It is easier to kill than to disable. I consider all of the Links just as guilty as you, because they know what you plan and still stand with you." These words struck a chord with Lechner and Emma influenced everyone to compare themselves to the heartless Charles Marlowe, hoping to show them that they were not only witnesses to his evil, but part of it.

"You would murder your own kind to save genetic inferiors?" Marlowe charged.

"Yes," Emma answered and the rest of Mutant X echoed her response. She reached out to all of Marlowe's people. Using Julia Lechner's mind as a litmus test, she broadcast feelings intended to instill sympathy for the non-mutants who would die if a Fasergen virus targeting them were released. Julia was an important part of their group and what would turn her might turn the rest. As would be expected, the thought of those she knew best, especially family, dying touched her most. Emma made the entire Strand think about the non-mutants who mattered in their lives.

"Then maybe you aren't one of us after all. Once we have the information we need, all of your lives are forfeit." Marlowe declared. Things were coming to a head. Adam, Brennan, Jesse and Shalimar were waiting on what Emma might do. If she was working her way up to eliminating a large portion of Marlowe's force, they were ready to spring into action and take on the rest.

"Try to harm me or my friends and you all die." Emma felt power coursing through her veins. She longed for an excuse to use it. Lechner feared her and it did not hurt to amplify and transmit this fear into the minds of Marlowe's people.

"Let's get out of here, Emma," Adam said, seeing they had come to an impasse. If neither side was willing to act first, they might just be able to slip out without violence. "We have his plan. Remember what you promised me? You said you wouldn't do anything reckless."

"Reckless would be letting this monster go. He has to be stopped…now." Emma was slightly disheartened by how few of the Links were coming over to their side. She could not be sure any of them, even Lechner, would turn on Marlowe. At first she was distressed by her failure to accurately read how close they were to converting, but then she reached deep into their cerebrums and found an unnaturally strong hatred of Normals. Gabriel Ashlocke had imprinted this ingrained enmity on all of them before his death.

"But no matter what you do, Ms. DeLauro, you can never kill me," Marlowe said, raising his voice. He came toward her, followed by his people, but was stopped in his tracks telekinetically. The time for gentleness had passed. To overcome the deep rut of hatred Ashlocke had left in the minds of the Links, Emma would need to be more forceful. She would try not to damage them further, but she had to undo or at least offset Patient Zero's handiwork. The only alternative would be to kill every New Mutant there, aside from her teammates.

A white beam of light emanated from Emma's eyes and she met the gaze of a male Link opposite her. The light then left his eyes and linked him with Maria Raven who was standing near Emma. This continued around the room until every Strand mutant's eyes were connected by a Psionic ray of power to each other and ultimately to Emma, creating a web of bright light, filling the center of the hangar. She then expanded the web, reaching beyond the space they occupied to the Links Mutant X had fought after escaping from their cell as well as to the pilots of the stealth planes hovering above the complex and the perimeter guards who were patrolling in case any of the prisoners succeeded in making it outside. Keeping Marlowe restrained and immobile physically, Emma accessed the gateways to the souls of all his followers, while she held them mentally.

Every single Link had family or friends once who were Normals. Emma used memories of these non-mutant loved ones. She reached deep into their minds and communally they shared all of the happy moments, the intimate moments, the times of joy with these human beings. These people were not less important than New Mutants. They did not despise those who were different, but rather embraced them, because, after all, every human being was a distinct individual. It was just that some possessed abilities others did not have. Over and over again, Emma reinforced their shared positive experiences with non-mutants. She could feel a softening of the hatred as some slowly came to realize that those who had tormented them for their powers were a minority.

Though this tactic was effective on the Links who had been recruited since Ashlocke's passing, these were few. The majority had been programmed not to value the lives of non-mutants. Gabriel had managed to dehumanize Normals to the point where their value in the lives of the Strand was minimal. Emma saw that she would have to try another tactic to overcome this. As an empath, Emma knew that, while positive feelings were often fleeting and needed to be continuously reinforced, negative feelings left deep and long-lasting scars in the psyche. It was much easier for her to catalogue the pain she had felt in her life than the joy. This is why Ashlocke burned hatred of Normals into his Links, rather than love for New Mutants. Negative feelings were also more useful motivators. Hatred brought action to destroy what you hated, whereas joy brought only contentment with a situation.

The Strand's hatred of Normals was blind. Emma decided to change that. It is easy to hate what you do not know. The death of a thousand strangers is not as potent as the passing of a single loved one. Marlowe meant to kill six billion people. It was a number so large as to mean nothing. Emma reached out beyond the hangar, beyond the Fasergen complex and into the world. She contacted mind after mind in the city, the state, the country, and the continent.

Millions upon millions of distinct intellects were introduced to the minds of the Links. The great mass of humanity, seen each as individuals, overwhelmed them. It was an experience inexplicable in spoken language and was so effective that even Emma was overawed. They recognized every face, knew every fear hope and dream of every person on the Earth. Never had anyone ever been as at one with the world as the New Mutants linked to Emma were now. She could see in their minds Ashlocke's work disappearing. It was easy to hold onto an unreasoning hatred of the unknown, but to hold onto your hatred even when you knew it to be unreasonable and unjustified was something only the insane could maintain.

Of course, this euphoric experience of oneness with humanity might soon be forgotten. Emma wanted the Links to fully realize what they had nearly participated in. She wanted to burn it into their brains with a horror that would prevent their ever forgetting or considering something so monstrous again. She had shown them the vast diversity of mankind. Now they would know what it was like for six billion people to die. The bright light faded from Emma's eyes and was replaced by an abysmal darkness. The web of luminescence filling the hangar and extending out to the rest of Marlowe's people turned into a thick black mist. The souls that the Strand had gotten to know individually through the Psionic connection now began to be extinguished.

Emma drew upon the experiences of the world's population and projected the tragedy of every murder, every terminal disease, every sickness, every accident to the New Mutants she was linked with. They saw holocausts and genocides, wars and plagues rip through the lives they felt they knew so well. To have one person you know die was horrible, but death after death after death without the mercy of time to grieve was beyond the capacity of anyone to deal with. All around people began crying, collapsing to the floor, wailing in pain and grief. Outside, the pilots of the stealth planes were forced into emergency landings as black tentacles of Psionic energy brought them the ends of innumerable lives. Millions of deaths, coming fractions of a second apart, but experienced fully and completely through the connection with Emma, shredded the psyches of every Link. The scars this ordeal would leave guaranteed that not one of them would ever take the life of another human being lightly again.

Behind her, Emma sensed the pain of her friends. The dark Psionic forces she had unleashed had engulfed them as well. Adam and Jesse had both gone into shock. Shalimar and Brennan were on the ground holding one another and crying on each other's shoulders. Only the Psionic Mutant Xer and the leader of the Strand were still standing. From all around, the dark energy Emma had created swept in and concentrated on Charles Marlowe.


	21. Unbroken Chapter 21

Chapter 21

A telempathic force so powerful that it was tangible engulfed Charles Marlowe. He could feel it crawling across his skin. The pain of a billion deaths flooded his mind and body with an energy as dark as his soul. Emma struggled to maintain her focus, finding it impossible not to be affected by the backwash of negative emotion as she funneled it ineffectively at Charles Marlowe. He simply started laughing.

"You think that showing me death will help you? It has no meaning to me." The black Psionic energy dissipated from around Marlowe. Emma saw stars in her eyes and felt feint with fatigue. She lost control of the telekinetic hold she had on the Strand leader, who walked calmly straight up to her. He grabbed her, his hands nearly encircling her thin upper arms. "Death is a privilege and I am more than happy to bestow it on anyone." Marlowe threw Emma down to the ground. She was nearly knocked out when her head smashed into the concrete.

"I had every intention of letting you live, Ms. DeLauro, but you have eliminated your own usefulness. I can't hold you by myself and I have no one to get the information that I want from your mind. You cannot kill me, but I see no advantage in letting your powers recharge again. At this point, my best bet is to try and undo the psychic blocks in your friends." Emma recovered slightly and tried to get up, but Marlowe stepped to her and brought his right foot down hard on her chest, slamming her into the concrete floor again and knocking the wind out of her. He removed his foot and stood on the right side of her head, looking straight down at her. "Death is bliss. I envy you," he said and pressed his right shoe against her trachea.

Emma began to panic as her air was cut off. She had already been gasping for breath and now could only stare up at Marlowe as her lungs tried futilely to pump oxygen through her choked off windpipe. With all of her might, Emma pushd up on his foot with both of her hands, but she didn't have the strength to lift it. She had not regained enough energy to use telekinesis to save herself. Her Mutant X team members had lost consciousness; unable to cope with the overflow of her attack on the Links and so she could expect no help from them.

There was only one hope. She did not have a surplus of Psionic energy and so could not launch any type of attack or defense, but she did have her own native life force. Emma astral projected from her body. Now a pale image of herself visible only to a powerful Psionic, she looked down at her lifeless carcass. A thin silver strand attached her mind to the mind of the limp form lying on the ground. If she was out of her body too long the glowing string would disappear and she could never return.

Marlowe lifted his foot from the young woman's throat soon after her body went limp. It had seemed too quick. He was a student of death and he did not believe it possible for him to be fooled. Taking a knee beside the body, he felt for breath, for a pulse, for the beat of her heart. There was nothing. Marlowe surveyed the hang and the dozens of still forms strewn about. He walked to where one of his aids was lying prone on the ground and retrieved the man's sidearm. Returning to Emma's corpse, he aimed the gun at the center of her forehead. There was always the possibility the girl had put herself into some sort of deep meditative trance that simulated death. It was not worth the risk.

Emma watched what her enemy was doing. If her body died, she would be doomed to wander the Earth as an incorporeal spirit until the energy of her astral form evaporated into nothingness. In an act of desperation, as she saw the barrel of the pistol aimed at her head, she leapt into the body of Charles Marlowe.

"Clever, but futile," he said, immediately sensing the other consciousness and recognizing who it must be. Involuntarily, his arm jerked, throwing the gun aside. Marlowe kicked Emma's innert body, but before he could kick it again, he lost control of his legs and fell to the ground.

"I know this is only temporary," Marlowe said. "Your body is still dying."

_Maybe, but I think I have long enough. _Emma forced Marlowe's body to stand. He began running toward the far corner of the hangar. Since she was possessing his body, Marlowe's New Mutant ability to instantly heal from attacks was rendered useless. Emma's control was indistinguishable from the commands of his own brain, therefore, his powers were not triggered. Though he struggled with her for domination, he could not compete with a Psionic in the realm of the mind.

"You can't hurt me." Marlowe wasn't often surprised and it worried him to some extent, but he was always confident in his invulnerability. Emma didn't care if he spoke and she allowed him to expend energy that way if he wanted. "I can already sense that you are weaker than when you first possessed me. You won't be able to get me far enough away that I can't return and kill you before your body recovers."

Rather than leaving the hangar, Marlowe climbed aboard the wreckage of the Double Helix. "What are you doing?" he asked. It was not the course of action he had expected. He found himself rummaging through a storage container. Inside, he found several innocuous looking nylon strings. They were Tuff-Tie restraints. Emma forced Marlowe to bind his legs in a hobble. Then he bound his wrists together on either side of a metal pipe in the damaged rear of the plane, using his teeth to push the polycarbonate locking block down snuggly. He then used his tongue to tie a knot in the trailing end of the nylon bonds.

_Don't worry, I'll be back, _Emma thought before gratefully deserting Charles Marlowe's body and following the silver tendril of life back to her own. The pain that met her was unbelievable. Her throat was crushed and she could hardly breath. It felt like Marlowe's kick had broken a few of her ribs. Her head ached from when it had hit the floor. Though beaten and battered, she was still alive. She could feel her power returning. All around her, she could sense the dull grief and horror running in the minds of the catatonic Links she had disabled. It would be days before they recovered and she did not envy them the misery that would fill their hearts when they awoke.

Adam, Shalimar, Jesse and Brennan were not as bad off as the Strand members, but they had still been affected enough that their minds could not deal with what they had experienced and remain conscious for long. Emma felt tears welling up in her eyes, but forced the back down again. She reached out to her friends and alleviated their pain, smoothing out the scars left by the pain of so many deaths. Hopefully, they would forgive her and realize she hadn't intended them to be victims of her attack. It would be better to let them awaken naturally, but they didn't have the luxury of time. All four woke up as if from a nightmare—screaming.


	22. Unbroken Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Emma knelt down amongst her friends. She touched Shalimar's cheek and wiped away tears with her thumb. "What happened?" the Feral asked her.

"You caught a little of what I did to them," Emma responded. It was difficult for her to speak and her voice sounded strained. Shalimar looked around the hangar. "Marlowe?"

"Still alive, but that will change. I have him restrained in the Helix."

"What did you do to them?" Adam asked. "Will they recover?"

"Never fully," Emma said, "but they'll be more-or-less functional in a day or two."

Brennan was the first to stand up again. "Emma, I'm glad you were able to get us out of the mess we were in, but I don't mind saying, I'll be happy when you're back to your old self."

Emma didn't respond to his comment. She wasn't sure that would ever be possible. Even when these powers faded, she would be different. In the Helix, Marlowe was trying to escape. Emma winced in pain as she felt him crushing his own hand to try and pull it through the restraints. His New Mutant ability to heal was his undoing. Once he smashed and dislocated the bones in his hands, they repaired themselves faster than he could work his way out of the bindings. Emma returned her attention to her immediate surroundings. "Are you all right, Jess?" she asked. He was the only one who had not yet spoken. Her heart broke to see the pain on his face and feel it in his mind. He seemed more affected than the others.

"It's just that I've never really been faced with death before. As Brennan so often reminds everyone, I lived a sheltered life. Now that I've seen it, I think I'm glad I had that shelter."

"Let's go talk to Mr. Marlowe," Adam said. They all went to the far corner of the hangar and the wreckage of the Double Helix. Marlowe had given up his struggles and was sitting down calmly awaiting them.

"How do you plan to kill him?" Shalimar asked Emma when she saw the man.

"Come on, Shalimar. Will you listen to what you are saying," Adam chided her.

"No, Adam," Brennan said. "We have to find a way to put an end to him for good."

"That doesn't mean we have to kill him. I say we lock him up and throw away the key. He doesn't have any powers that will help him escape life in prison."

"Mason always said your compassion was your greatest weakness," Marlowe taunted him.

"I can't agree with you, Adam," Emma said. "There's always the risk he could get away. Maybe burn the prison to the ground. He would heal as quickly as the flames consumed him and then could walk away unscathed."

"I will make sure the proper precautions are in place," Adam assured her.

"I'm with Shalimar, Brennan and Emma," Jesse said. "Is one life worth risking six billion?"

"Even if I agreed with you, and I don't," Adam said, "how would you kill him?" Jesse didn't have an answer for that.

"This is all very touching," Marlowe said. "What if I just promised to be good?" They continued to ignore him.

"Maybe I agree with Adam after all, but there's a better way to imprison him, with less risk." Emma squatted down to look Marlowe in the eyes. "We dump him in a cement mixer, fill it with cement and let it dry." For the first time, the Psionic thought she sensed true fear in him.

"Would he eventually starve or suffocate?" Brennan asked.

"I don't know." Adam considered the possibilities. He thought Emma's suggestion was far too cruel, but there seemed little choice. The risks of Marlowe escaping were too great. "When Charles was at Genomex originally, many experiments were done to test his invulnerability. It wasn't realized that his true power was regeneration at the time. I was not involved directly with the test, but I read the reports later. One involved locking him up for a month without food, water or oxygen. When they released him, he was entirely unaffected."

Shalimar shook her head. "I don't like it. It seems like death would be more merciful," she said, echoing Adam's thoughts.

Emma stood up again and looked at the blond woman. "And he deserves mercy?" It wasn't a point Shalimar was willing to argue. He didn't deserve it.

"He can't heal that quickly. Could he survive lava or a vat of molten steel?" Jesse asked.

"Probably not, but then a few cells somewhere else begin regenerating and we are worse off, because we don't even know where he is." Adam looked down at their prisoner, hearing a disturbing noise.

Marlowe was laughing. All of Mutant X stared at him. "I'm sorry, but to listen to you mortals discuss my fate is truly amusing."

His snide remark struck a chord in Emma. She knelt back down in front of the man and linked with his mind. "What made you this way?" she asked.

Emma saw an immensely deep scar burned into Marlowe's psyche. It was associated with something that had happened after he left Genomex the first time to try and live a normal life, but before he returned as a hired gun for Mason Eckhart. The emotional damage caused by this incident had made him block off all sympathy, all love of life, all compassion and the very will to live. He did not see his immortality as a gift, but as a punishment he could never escape. If he could come to terms with what had happened, maybe even the hard-hearted Marlowe could be turned. Emma would make him relive that night and tear through the thick walls he had built up around it.

Charles Marlowe was driving late at night. For the first time since their child was born several years ago, they had time and money for a vacation on the coast. Charles had been eager to get out of the house before rush hour traffic, but his daughter's temper tantrum and the resulting fight he had with his wife over how to deal with the child meant they spent hours in gridlock. He was determined to make up the time and drove recklessly, weaving in and out of traffic well above the speed limit whenever possible, even after the rain started falling. His wife was nervous and kept telling him to be careful. He was too fast and too reckless. She wanted to take the wheel. They had been driving for hours and their daughter had cried most of the time, sensing the tension between her parents. Charles was only interested in making time. He felt they must understand what he was trying to do for them and considered them to be unreasoningly upset. He turned up the radio, insisting everything would be okay if they would just calm down and let him drive.

A few miles more and he found himself on a section of highway with only two lanes, both of which were blocked by cars driving fifteen miles below the speed limit due to the torrential downpour. Marlowe accelerated and pulled onto the shoulder, trying to pass the slow moving vehicles on the right. Unseen in the in the rain and darkness, their car hit a retread that had come off of a tractor-trailer. The speed of the impact and hardness of the retread actually dented the steel belts in the front right tire. He began losing control of the car and could dimly see through the torrents of water that they were on the outside of a curve. The shoulder was covered with mud and gravel. His tire was no longer round and the steering alignment was thrown off. The car barreled into the guardrail, which held for a moment, changing the trajectory of the car, but then broke off. The Marlowe family vehicle rolled and tumbled down a sharp incline, finally coming to rest out of view of the highway.

Charles looked over to see the dashboard crushing his wife's chest. A sheared off tree branch impaled her chest. Not one window was intact and glass was everywhere. In the back seat, his daughter leaned forward, supported by a safety belt. The neck was bent at an unnatural angle and a slight flutter of the eyelashes was the only sign of life. With difficulty, he pulled himself from the wreckage, tearing his own flesh, which instantly healed. A twisted guardrail, pieces of a shattered tree, and debris from the car surrounded him as he stood watching his wife and child take their last breaths. He climbed over the car to the other side so that he could reach through the broken passenger side windows and touch the two people that were his whole life. He held their hands and gently stroked their cheeks as life faded. His child died first, never making a sound. His wife recovered briefly from the shock of her injuries. Her eyes focused on his.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He cried and grasped her hand tightly.

"I..." she began, but never finished. Her eyes lost focus again and in a few minutes, she was dead. Marlowe held their hands for a long time as their bodies slowly cooled. He knew that he would never see them again, not in heaven and not in hell. He walked away from the crash site, knowing that he was doomed to roam the Earth forevermore alone.

"We can try to send you to them, Charles," Emma said. Despite her hatred of the man, she found that her eyes were tearing.

"No you can't. No one can." Marlowe was crying as well. He let Emma see through his eyes to another time, years later. His life was slipping away along with the blood gushing forth from a gunshot wound. Adam Kane and Shalimar Fox were standing over him. He was happy; he was dying. Their faces blurred and his vision blacked out. There Marlowe's conscious memories ended, but Emma was able to access cellular memories that he could not—perceptions, sounds and sensations the waking brain did not remember. The transfusion of DNA that saved the lives of hundreds of New Mutants had left Charles Marlowe apparently vulnerable to death. Mason Eckhart wasted no time, ordering the body immediately cremated. He considered the Molecular a threat, because he was immune to retribution or discipline. This might be the only opportunity to destroy him once and for all. She felt the flames consume the once untouchable body.

Emma could see thousands of long silver filaments, similar to those anchoring an astral form to its physical body, leading from Marlowe. These tendrils connected his consciousness with all of his detached living cells, which she could see as dim lights. Blood samples, the root of a hair, anything that lived that had once been part of him was attached and aware of the main body. As the primary light went out, another flared up. It was not the largest group of living cells, but it was in the most auspicious place, surrounded by unlimited biological mass that could be used to reconstruct and regenerate. One single blood cell that was splattered by the gunshot wound Marlowe had received was swept up with the garbage and thrown in the trash. The New Mutant ability of that one cell was triggered and it began to grow. Months later, sentience returned to Charles Marlowe, but he was not in Heaven or Hell, but rather someplace worse. He was alive. "You see," he said. "You can't kill me."

"But I can," Emma told him. She believed that what she just saw held the key. Part of her wished him the pain of being contained immobile in isolation for all eternity, but another part had grown some sympathy for Marlowe. What he had suffered did not excuse his subsequent actions, but the tragedy, paired with the emotional instability inherent in his mutation made her understand him to some extent. "I offer you death." She sensed the slightest beginnings of hope.


	23. Unbroken Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"Jesse, can you phase Marlowe out of his bonds?" Emma asked.

"I think I can do that," he said, "but why would I?"

"Trust me," Emma said.

"I do, but I don't trust him," Jesse quipped.

For a second, Emma considered compelling Jesse. She could also simply find something sharp and cut Marlowe out herself, but then she decided there was no real reason to move him except expediency. "I'll be back in a few minutes," she told her friends and deplaned the wrecked Helix.

Emma searched the minds of the Links lying about on the floor of the hangar. She would make sure their received medical attention once Mutant X had left. None seemed to be in immediate danger of dying, but they might take a turn for the worse once they woke up. There were still Strand members at other Fasergen locations that could return to Site G and come to their aid. She picked out Julia Lechner. Emma had partially shielded her and the Links not programmed by Gabriel Ashlocke from the full force of her attack. The woman was in bad shape nevertheless. Reaching into the Geologic's mind, she located the emotional scar she had created and began the process of smoothing it out somewhat. Julia had supported Marlowe, not only due to the hatred imprinted by Patient Zero, but of her own free will, so Emma would not erase or bypass her pain completely.

The woman woke screaming as if from a nightmare. She sat up and looked around, shocked to see Emma was the only one left standing. "Are they dead?" she asked.

"No," Emma answered simply.

"Where's Charles?" Julia asked.

"Come with me, I'll show him to you." Emma manipulated her mind, keeping her calm and compliant. "Follow me."

The two women joined the Mutant Xers and Charles Marlowe in the Helix.

"Emma, Julia," Adam said. "What are you planning?"

"This time, Julia Lechner is the key to the cure. The cure for Marlowe's life," Emma said.

The small hope Marlowe had disappeared. "She can probably destroy this body, but I'll just regenerate somewhere else." Emma sensed the walls around his pain beginning to reform. She had exposed his humanity, but if she was unable to deliver on her promise of death, it would be buried again in his hatred.

"I won't kill him," Julia said. "You can't make me."

A dark ball of Psionic energy formed in front of Emma's forehead. "I can make you do anything I want," she said, "but I won't." The dark sphere turned into an orb of white light. A beam of energy connected her to Julia and then to Marlowe, creating a triangle of brilliance running between their three minds. Emma showed her Marlowe's mind from the pain caused by the death of his wife and child to the despondency he felt upon his resurrection. Then Emma showed her the long fingers of communication reaching out to his every living cell. There were even more now than Emma had seen in Marlowe's memory—thousands of blood samples at multiple Fasergen sites, the blood on the hangar floor from Emma's attack on him with the ten bullets, even an entire hand he had cut off and given to a group of his scientists to study, and many others.

"Julia," Emma addressed the blond woman, "when your powers were spinning out of control, you were actually able to project your entropic touch."

"I don't even know how I did that. I just remember the death it caused. I won't use my powers on Mr. Marlowe."

"You don't have to, Julia," Adam said. "Emma, that's enough. We already discussed this. Killing him here would not do any good. Imprisonment is the only option."

"No. I can adjust Julia's powers," Emma explained. "I can recreate her ability to project entropy and distribute it through Marlowe's own intercellular communication system, killing every living cell simultaneously. He will be dead…all of him." She turned to Lechner. "I showed you his mind. What I ask is not for you to hurt him, but to help him. Save him. It's the only mercy this world has to give."

Julia Lechner was choked up. She knew the truth of Emma's words, having looked inside of Charles Marlowe. This was the man who meant to kill the billions of souls whose murders haunted her mind. Intellectually, she knew that the Mutant X Psionic had implanted the horror of that genocide of Normals into her brain, but that did not make it less real to her. There was also the realization that she would have gone along with Marlowe in his plans. "I can't." She didn't want the guilt of another death on her conscience.

"This is what I want," Marlowe said, echoing what he had thought were his last words when he died at Mason Eckhart's orders more than a year ago. A long silence followed and finally Julia nodded her head. She would do it.

Throughout the country in genetic laboratories owned by Fasergen, test tubes of blood and other biological samples turned to dust. Emma watched as each cord extending to a part of Marlowe disappeared. In a matter of seconds, the last cells of the Strand leader were the ones in the body standing right in front of them. The mental connection between the three was broken. Charles Marlowe bowed his head and Julia Lechner placed her hands upon it. Unto dust did he return.

"I suggest you contact some of your associates at other sites to come and help your friends in there," Emma told Julia. Without saying a word, she left the Helix.

"Now what?" Jesse asked.

"We get out of here," Brennan answered.

"Not quite yet," Emma said. "We can't leave Fasergen intact. Armored and armed stealth planes, Genomex's technology, the wealth they've stolen and earned with their unethical research." Her voice was getting worse as she kept talking with her damaged trachea and vocal cords.

"I agree," Adam said, "but first, are you holding up okay, Emma?"

"No, but I'll persevere," she answered.

"Unfortunately, we all have to rely on you a little longer. You know more about our current situation than the rest of us."

Emma nodded. She gave Brennan, Jesse and Shalimar the locations of the Strand aircraft. "I can't tell if they'll still fly. The pilots did not have much time for safe landings."

"If they will fly, I want you three to contact me and I'll give you the coordinates of a secret airfield where you are to take them. If not, we'll take things from there. Emma and I will look into the computer systems here and see what we can do about Fasergen's research and finances."

They all went about their assigned tasks. Brennan, Jesse and Shalimar called in to say that the planes looked like they would fly, but they didn't have the access codes to get them going. Adam and Emma were able to find the information and told the three to go ahead. They would follow on land and meet them at the airstrip. Adam got a hold of Fasergen's real accounting information, which differed greatly from their public books. The records would arrive anonymously at the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as several other government agencies.

"The only way to destroy their research is to wipe the minds of every Fasergen scientist," Emma croaked. "It could take months to track them all down."

"I don't think we need go that far, Emma," Adam said. "We just mean to cripple them. Do you think you would be able to access their computers telecyberly?"

"I can try." Using her enhanced powers on humans had come naturally, but connecting with something artificial was another matter. Her blue eyes became bluer, glowing like light emitting diodes, and she reached out with her mind to the simplistic electrical patterns of the Fasergen intranet. First, she copied every piece of information she could find and sent the data to Sanctuary. Now it was time to destroy. Worse than any virus, Emma ripped through computer after computer. She wiped and reformatted every disk and hard drive, then destroyed them. Not one chip was left intact. Emma then used the information she had learned in the system to connect to every wireless device, portable assistant, and employee home computer so that nothing was spared. "Done," she said. "Of course, there's nothing I can do about anything on paper."

"Don't worry. The Feds will take care of that part. The electronic information is what could be copied, transmitted and hidden most easily. Just re-data-entering everything would take years." Adam smiled at the young woman. "It's time to go home."

Together they returned to the aircraft hangar. Several Links who had arrived from other sights were seeing to their fallen comrades. They knew well enough to let Emma and Adam be. The hangar doors were now open and a pair of helicopters was landed outside. "Looks like our ticket out of here," Emma said.

"I hate to leave the Helix, though," Adam said regretfully.

"Even if it wasn't shot to hell and wingless, I assume you completely fried the computer system once it was obvious you might be captured."

"Call me sentimental."

A scintillating light appeared in front of Emma's forehead and extended to the Double Helix, engulfing it in sparkling light. The plane lifted from the ground and flew out the hangar doors. Emma and Adam followed. Several large flatbed trucks were parked outside and Emma placed the Helix down on one of them. She then used her powers to tie the plane down securely and found a tarp large enough to hide what was being transported. Adam got in behind the wheel and Emma sat in the passenger seat. The keys were already in the truck and together they drove off to join the rest of the team.


	24. Unbroken Chapter 24

Chapter 23

Emma woke up in a hospital bed. She had no idea where she was. The last thing she remembered was dozing off in the truck next to Adam. She winced slightly as she tried to sit up. Her ribs and head were bandaged. Though her throat still hurt, it must not have been bad enough to require surgery. She could breath easily through her nose and mouth.

"Good morning, sleepy-head." She noticed Shalimar standing up from a nearby chair. "I was beginning to worry you might never wake up."

"How long has it been?" the redhead asked.

"Getting close to three days."

"No wonder I'm starving," Emma exclaimed.

"You look it," Shalimar said, meaning it as a joke.

Emma looked downcast, self-conscious about her frail state, especially in front of such a healthy, fit woman as the blond Feral.

"Oh, Emma, I'm so sorry." She sat on the bed put her arm around the younger woman's shoulders. "You'll be back in fighting shape in no time."

"Where are we?" Emma asked, consoled.

"We're at a private hospital in the country run by an old friend of Adam's." Shal told her.

"Why aren't we at Sanctuary?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Shalimar smiled at her.

Emma had no clue what she was talking about at first. So much had happened, but then she remembered. They didn't know where Sanctuary was. She reached into Shalimar's mind and removed the blocks she had placed there weeks ago. It seemed like so much more time had passed, but it had only been a little less than a month.

"Thank-you. I feel much better knowing how to get home. Do you feel strong enough to get up?" Emma did, though she needed a little help from the other woman at first to steady herself. She may have slept for nearly three days, but she still felt exhausted.

Brennan, Jesse and Adam were all gathered in a lounge area, not far from Emma's room. She smiled to see them all and immediately undid the blocks she had placed in their brains.

Adam smiled jovially and said, "Let's go home." After the formalities of checking Emma out of the hospital and saying goodbye to Adam's friend, Mutant X climbed into a van they had procured and at long last returned to Sanctuary.

Back home, Adam immediately had Emma report to the lab. He desperately wanted to give her a thorough checkup on his own equipment. There was no telling what side effects her experiences over the last few weeks might have had on her. She willingly lay back in the reclining medical chair as his scanners electromagnetically examined her.

"Are you still experiencing an extension of your New Mutant abilities, Emma?" Adam asked. In answer, a drawer opened on once side of room and a dozen scalpels leapt into the air and raced at Adam, stopping just short of his face and heart. "Not funny," he told her. The scalpels rotated one hundred eighty degrees and flew through the air again, embedding themselves in the far wall.

"Don't complain. You're the one who did this to me," Emma said.

"What I did to you, Emma, was an option of last resort and despite what you may think, I did not do it lightly." She didn't respond and he turned to the results of his scans. Most of the protein complexes Adam had injected Emma with had disappeared. They worked to amplify and extend her native powers. In performing this function, they would break down and be absorbed by the body. If he assumed the concentration in her blood of these proteins after he injected her as one hundred percent on a scale, she was currently down to ten percent.

"I want you to continue using your extended powers for the next few days so that I can monitor what effect they have on you," Adam instructed her.

"Now that my powers are enhanced, you suddenly think you can lie to me?" Emma challenged him.

"Get out of my mind, Emma." Adam was concerned.

"Don't worry. I'm not reading you, but right now I can feel every emotion and I hear every surface thought as if it was being yelled in my ear," she said. "I'll follow your instructions."

Adam compared a brainwave profile of Emma taken before their capture to the one he had just taken. It was difficult to reconcile the two. He then compared the two scans to ones taken of Emma's two selves when she had been split apart. The post-Marlowe Emma was much more like the reckless aggressive side than the passive compassionate side. She should have been an even mixture of the two.

"I used to fear that Emma. Now I think I admire her," the young woman said. Adam had to be careful. She was reading him indiscriminately. "No, it's you who are broadcasting indiscriminately." Emma swung her legs off the side of the chair and stood up. "Just out of curiosity, Adam, if I were to read you, would I like what I saw?" Adam tried to keep his mind a blank slate and said nothing. Emma left the lab.

For the next few days, Emma kept to herself while she explored and expended her powers. She telekinetically rearranged furniture and stacked stones. She experimented with astral projecting and traveling the information superhighway telecyberly. Now that she was safe and relaxed with sleep and a full belly, she found it to be much easier on her mind and body to use these abilities. On the third day after their return to Sanctuary, Emma was sitting on a rock by the water far below the camouflaged hangar door the Helix used to enter their headquarters. She had stacked eight large boulders on top of one another and was moving the ninth when it slipped from her mind's grip and fell into the water.

She knew she still had her powers. She was able to feel the emotions of her friends up above her, but something was definitely different. Quickly, she gathered her lunch basket and blanket and ran to see Adam in the lab. A thorough examination revealed that the protein complexes he had injected Emma with were now completely gone. A new brainwave profile showed her to be more centered, though the change from her experiences with deprivation, torture and death had left heavy marks on her psyche.

"How do you feel, Emma?" Adam asked her.

"Good. I'm not hearing thoughts anymore, just the normal emotional clutter," she answered.

"Excellent," Adam said. "I already had planned for a celebration today. Now we have two reasons." He led Emma into the common room where Jesse, Shalimar and Brennan were lounging around. Adam made sure he had everyone's attention. "I'm proud to announce that Emma is now out of danger. She has her first clean bill of health." Everyone clapped and hooted.

"You're still looking a little scrawny there, girl," Shalimar said.

"I'm up to a hundred fifteen. As long as I don't have to eat any of Jesse's cooking, I'll be back to my normal size in no time."

"Hey, what did I do?" Jesse exclaimed, mock indignant.

"You said something about a celebration?" Emma prodded, lest Adam forget.

"Yes, everyone, follow me." Adam led his team to the hangar. When they entered, they all gasped in surprise. There was the Double Helix, looking shiny and new. "I picked her up this morning. It's amazing how quickly repairs get done if you know the right people. And it didn't hurt to have three other planes to strip parts from."

"She looks great, Adam," Brennan said. Everyone agreed. "Any upgrades?"

"A few, but now, let's pick somewhere for dinner. The whole world is at our disposal." Adam almost considered the Helix the sixth member of his team. He was glad to have everyone together again.

A few days later, Adam called Emma into the lab for another checkup. She could immediately tell that he was disturbed by the results. "What's wrong, Adam?"

"Maybe I need to recalibrate my equipment. There seems to be a problem." He checked and rechecked every way he could think of, but could find nothing wrong. I'll run a complete systems diagnostic, but it appears that your extended powers are returning. Somehow your brain must have learned to synthesize the proteins I injected you with. Only small amounts are being produced, but they could build up and have the same effects on you that they had before."

"Don't bother with the diagnostic," Emma said. "You are right."

"You know?" Adam was truly surprised. How could she hide something like this from him?

"Yes. How could I not know? I feel the power surging through me."

"You should have told me immediately so I could start working on a treatment." He was concerned for the girl. One of the side effects of the protein complexes he had introduced into her system seemed to be an emotional and psychological instability. The higher the concentration, the more unpredictable and even maniacal she became.

"I don't want to be cured. These abilities helped me once. They may again. I know you are hiding things from us, Adam. You think you are doing it to protect us. I respect you and love you enough not to rip the secrets out of your mind, but if your secrets ever threaten me or Brennan, Shalimar and Jesse, I won't hesitate to force you to talk."

"Emma, what you are dealing with is dangerous. It's unstudied. I do know that the buildup of these chemicals has a detrimental effect on your emotional well-being." Adam could not believe her recklessness. He could only attribute it to a side effect of the changes in her brain chemistry.

"It's a risk I will have to take. I need to have something you don't know about in case you ever endanger us." Adam wasn't sure if he was more disturbed by what she said or by the cold, calculating, matter-of-fact way she said it.

He was beginning to think she was even more unstable than he had feared. "But I do know about it," Adam said.

"No, you don't." Emma's eyes fully dilated into twin pools of abysmal black. "Whenever you examine me in the future, you will not notice any abnormalities in my mutation unless they are life-threatening." Her irises returned to blue.

Adam reexamined his screen, which displayed the results of her checkup. "Well, Emma, I have to say, everything still looks perfectly normal, at least for a New Mutant."

Emma showed Adam her infectious smile and he smiled at her, glad to have his Psionic back to her old self. The tall young woman left the lab and Adam returned to his project of cataloguing all of the information they had extracted from Fasergen.

Late that night, Shalimar came across Adam sitting by himself, alone in the dark. "Something bothering you?" she asked.

"Maybe it's nothing," he said, " but then again…" he trailed off.

"Usually your suspicions are correct. What is it?" Shalimar asked him.

"I think Emma did something to me. I've been trying to figure out what, but it's probably futile."

"A month ago, I would have said that was impossible. Now, I worry about her. She's not the Emma who left on the mission to Fasergen."

"If she did do something to me, it's my own fault. She's a young girl, hardly twenty. What right do I have to send her into danger like that?"

"She's always free to walk away from this." Shalimar would miss Emma if she left them, but she believed in the cause of Mutant X and that came first.

"There's every possibility she could one day walk away from here and we could find her opposing us. Psionics tend to be unstable to begin with. Such a powerful empath, bombarded with so many emotions every day of her life and now with what happened to her at Fasergen. What if she became another Eckhart or Ashlocke or Marlowe?"

"Someone once told me you can't force right or wrong on anyone. All you can do is lead by example and hope they lean toward the light." Shalimar put her arm around Adam. He only wished he could be sure in which direction Emma would lean.

THE END


End file.
